Louis Poliniak's Hydrespirator

Louis Poliniak's everyday occupation was walking the Reading Railroad's tracks. In August 1937, the Daily Item introduced the Shamokin resident in another role: inventor of a breathing device he called a hydrespirator. He told the paper that the idea had first come to him sixteen years earlier, although he had begun working on it in earnest only about a year before the report.

His application was filed on March 4, 1937, and U.S. Patent 2,088,720 was granted on August 3. The design placed a liquid-containing tank on the wearer's body and connected it to a mouthpiece. Incoming air was directed through the liquid before inhalation, while the design also provided a path for exhaled air. The patent described water or another liquid; the newspaper characterized the approach as purification with liquid chemicals.

Poliniak claimed that his device would remove any impurity or foreign matter from air. That ambitious assurance was his statement to the newspaper, not a demonstrated guarantee of protection. The patent records a proposed arrangement of parts and its intended purpose. It does not establish safety certification, effective protection from every contaminant, or use by the railroad.