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Iron Lung, 1940

Scots Mission Hospital iron lung. Dr. Torrance, Sister Lee, patient Dow. March, 1940. The first modern and practical respirator nicknamed the "iron lung" was invented by Harvard medical researchers Philip Drinker and Louis Agassiz Shaw in 1927. The inventors used an iron box and two vacuum cleaners to build their prototype respirator. Almost the length of a subcompact car, the iron lung exerted a push-pull motion on the chest. In 1927, the first iron lung was installed at Bellevue hospital in New York City. The first patients of the iron lung were polio sufferers with chest paralysis. Later, John Emerson improved upon Philip Drinker's invention and invented an iron lung that cost half as much to manufacture. By the 1950's and '60's, the invention of portable ventilators made iron lungs obsolete. By 1970, J. H. Emerson Co. ceased manufacturing this apparatus, but many still depend on such mechanical ventilation systems on a daily basis.
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Title:
Iron Lung, 1940
Caption:
Scots Mission Hospital iron lung. Dr. Torrance, Sister Lee, patient Dow. March, 1940. The first modern and practical respirator nicknamed the "iron lung" was invented by Harvard medical researchers Philip Drinker and Louis Agassiz Shaw in 1927. The inventors used an iron box and two vacuum cleaners to build their prototype respirator. Almost the length of a subcompact car, the iron lung exerted a push-pull motion on the chest. In 1927, the first iron lung was installed at Bellevue hospital in New York City. The first patients of the iron lung were polio sufferers with chest paralysis. Later, John Emerson improved upon Philip Drinker's invention and invented an iron lung that cost half as much to manufacture. By the 1950's and '60's, the invention of portable ventilators made iron lungs obsolete. By 1970, J. H. Emerson Co. ceased manufacturing this apparatus, but many still depend on such mechanical ventilation systems on a daily basis.
Credit:
Album / LOC/Science Source
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Image size:
4500 x 3513 px | 45.2 MB
Print size:
38.1 x 29.7 cm | 15.0 x 11.7 in (300 dpi)
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