Emerson Iron Lung
date: label: date made
content: ca 1931
name: label: early developer
content: Drinker, Philip
label: early developer
content: Shaw, Louis Agassiz
label: business owner
content: Emerson, John Haven
label: maker
content: Emerson, John Haven
label: maker
content: John Haven Emerson Company
notes: label: Description
content: This early respirator for producing artificial respiration over long periods of time was designed and constructed by the donor, John Haven Emerson. Completed in July 1931, it was first used in the summer of that year at the Providence City Hospital, Providence, R.I. The original features claimed for this machine when it was introduced are: the leather diaphragm, which replaced the noisy vacuum-cleaner blower on earlier machines; a hand pump to be used in case of electrical failure; improved gears to simplify adjustment of respiration rate to suit the patient; and simplification of fastenings to permit rapid entry of the patient. The machine is 2.25 m L x 1.8 m H x 95 cm W.
label: Description
content: Poliovirus belongs to a family of very small, single-stranded RNA viruses that also includes the pathogens of common cold and infectious hepatitis (Hepatitis A). Many strains of the virus that do not produce serious disease exist, and are capable of inducing immunity. Ironically, improvements in sanitation reduced this natural resistance and opened the way for more and worse epidemics after World War I.
label: Description
content: The most serious polio patients suffered respiratory failure, and as early as the 1860s, inventors had experimented with apparatuses for artificial breathing. In 1928, Philip Drinker and Dr. Louis Agassiz Shaw, in Boston, first used the term "iron lung" for their machine that varied pressure to aid polio victims' respiration. John Haven Emerson, who ran a machine shop at Harvard Square making medical and scientific instruments, saw Drinker's and Shaw's device and imagined improvements, which he completed three years later. His respirator not only worked better, it sold for less than half the price of the original "iron lung." Legal battles followed, but Emerson's designs prevailed commercially as the virus created a growing demand.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Cambridge
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Health & Medicine
label: See more items in
content: The Antibody Initiative
label: See more items in
content: Antibody Initiative: Polio
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of John Haven Emerson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.M-04998
label: catalog number
content: M-04998
label: accession number
content: 160980
objectType: label: Object Name
content: iron lung
label: Object Name
content: respirator
label: Other Terms
content: Medicine
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 67 in x 34 in x 90 in; 170.18 cm x 86.36 cm x 228.6 cm