THE BREATHING MASK

This simple chronicle of Garrett Morgan’s development of the gas mask has an engaging plot and a satisfying ending, but offers little technical explanation.

The first sentence features an explosion, 228 feet under Lake Erie in a work tunnel, where "smoke, natural gases, dust, and debris" trap a group of men. Nobody is able to reach them safely, until Morgan, who has been demonstrating "a breathing machine or gas inhalator," rushes to the scene and, along with his brother and two other volunteers, ventures into the tunnel, the gas masks enabling them to breathe in the smoky chamber. The author paces the story well, and the last two spreads are satisfying: The government purchases the mask for soldiers to use during World War I, as well as for firefighters and police, and Morgan receives the recognition he deserves. But without citations or a bibliography, the book’s accuracy remains dubious, and readers may be disappointed by the lack of mechanical detail: How did the mask actually work? Jackson’s colors are unvaryingly harsh, and the light levels are not clearly differentiated. The picture of the men going "[d]own, down, down … into the darkness," for example, is no darker than any other.

Tolerable, but not special.