Gas Mask and Respirator Wiki
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Disclaimer: This article contains a great deal of misinformation. Would be advisable not to use this article until a rewrite takes place. Note that the respirator should be referred to as General Civilian Mk. III, or colloquially, "Small Child Respirator". Under no circumstance should this respirator be referred to as "Mickey Mouse" or "C2". Secondly, Britain produced these in red and black, with some speculation about blue variants. However, it must be noted that black ones are not Canadian just because they're black. They are only Canadian if they have the Canadian variant of the broad arrow printed onto the container and/or were produced by Canadian rubber companies, such as Dominion. Baroque4Days 23/12/20

The mask was issued in the late 1930s to 40s It was targeted at children of ages 2-5 who did not fit into the Baby Helmet Respirator and still did not have a head large enough to fit into a normal sized gas mask. Upon comparison to other masks it can be seen that is much smaller. In fact in the picture displayed on the right, it is on a foam child sized head.

These respirators used a unique rubber mask created in both red natural rubber and the cheaper reclaimed black rubber mix. These two variants were produced alongside eachother and were both fitted with a blue 60mm container known also as the GC Mk. III. The eyepieces of this mask are glass disks held in place by metal rings crimped onto the rubber. The straps on this mask are also quite bizarre, and are not present on other British respirators. They are springs covered in some form of blue elastic material and are closed with a small metal clasp.

Due to the fear of arsine gas being used against the British during the October 1939 arsine scare, Small Child Respirators were recalled and fitted with a 'Contex' container, a pre-filter which contained a layer of resin-impregnated merino wool to better protect against arsenical smokes than the former asbestos-wool mix. The Contex container was a small aluminium filter anodised green and attached by means of fabric-tape.

The mask was issued to people in boxes which were strung and carried around the neck. They were also issued in metal carrying cases, and sometimes even in a leather carrying case lined with thin cardboard-like paper inside. A couple of biscuit making companies issued special tins for gas mask storage.

The mask uses a 60mm connection that has degraded over time, resulting in a decent amount of the masks having their filter ports corroded to the point of being unable to remove the filters.

Fun fact: This respirator would be used in conjunction with the Civilian Duty Respirator to create the Experimental Light Respirator Mk. 1 in 1941.

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