canetoad

Dave is right; it is not only for escape. When I was researching this some months back, I found it is used for a variety of purposes by the military & others. I believe it is still in use with, at the least, some Czech firefighting & rescue organizations. Dave, as previously mentioned; Sportamansguide.com has them for sale in the Military Surplus section. Unfortunately they don't include the gas mask. It, however, is the standard Czech M10 or M10M gas mask available from a number of sources quite reasonably. One very useful feature is that the manifold is threaded to accept DIN regulators.

ebourzeix; the tanks are a total of 4L, & @ their rated pressure, I think it comes out to approx. 40cu. ft., if I recall my past research correctly. The manual states this can last up to one hour. Maybe wishful thinking under the stress of combat, etc. Also, I believe, they are filled with air. In any case it is not rebreathed. The 2 corrugated breathing hoses are inhale hoses. They come straight off the regulator's inhale side. There is no means to route exhaled breath back to the bag. The bag is actually a horse collar type floatation device with a pull cord - style inflator. The "Sorb" you are referring to is, no doubt, the standard NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) type replaceable cartridges that are available for the M10 gas mask. You can find these readily available for sale on the internet as well. It does not have manual injection. It is demand fed via the regulator. The unique feature of the regulator is that it has something akin to a surface breathing valve. When the tank's gas valve is off, a valve (the large heavy circular device attached to the back of the 2nd stage), opens to the surrounding atmosphere. This allows the user to inhale through the 2 corrugated hoses coming off the regulator. When the tank's gas valve is open, it closes the valve to the surrounding atmosphere & allows you to breath the air from the tanks. Hope this helps answer some questions. I believe this info to be pretty accurate, based on computer & human derived translation of WebPages & manuals, as well as hands-on examination. That said, I do admit that I don’t have the full data on this unit & some details may be lacking or inaccurate. Nevertheless, it is an interesting unit with the potential to utilize some of it's parts for other projects.
Thanks,
PM

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PM