Keidel Vacuum Bleeding Tube - For the Quick and Aseptic Collection of Blood for the Wassermann and Other Reactions
date: label: date made
content: ca 1915-1920
name: label: maker
content: Hynson, Westcott & Dunning, Incorporated
notes: label: Description
content: An inscription on the cardboard box reads in part, “THE KEIDEL VACUUM BLEEDING TUBE / FOR THE QUICK AND ASEPTIC COLLECTION OF BLOOD FOR THE WASSERMANN AND OTHER REACTIONS.” The Wasserman test for syphilis was developed at the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, in 1906, and named for August Paul von Wassermann (1866-1925), a German bacteriologist. Albert Keidel (1877-1942), a physician affiliated with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, designed the form of this tube.
label: Description
content: Ref: Albert Keidel, “A Sample Bleeding Tube for Obtaining Specimens for the Wasserman Reaction,” Journal of the American Medical Association 58 (1912): 1579.
label: Description
content: Testing blood serum for the presence of antibodies required specialized tools and techniques for collecting blood samples without introducing contaminants. The Keidel Vacuum Bleeding Tube, introduced around 1915, provided one solution. Each sterile package contained a needle attached via a short rubber tube to a sealed glass vacuum tube. After the needle was inserted into the vein, the seal was broken, allowing blood to be drawn quickly into the glass tube. The sample could then be resealed and sent to the laboratory for testing. The Keidel device was marketed particularly for the Wassermann test—a serological test for syphilis developed in 1906. The diagnostic test aided public health departments in their efforts to control the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Maryland, Baltimore
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
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content: The Antibody Initiative
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content: Health & Medicine
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content: Antibody Initiative: Diagnostics
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content: Antibody Initiative: Infectious Disease, Allergy, and Immunotherapy Collections
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Howard Kouzel
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2002.0224.16
label: catalog number
content: 2002.0224.16
label: accession number
content: 2002.0224
objectType: label: Object Name
content: diagnostic, blood, syphilis
label: Object Name
content: syringe, blood collection
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cotton (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cardboard (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall, box: 6 cm x 18.5 cm x 6.5 cm; 2 3/8 in x 7 5/16 in x 2 9/16 in
label: Measurements
content: box: 2 3/8 in x 7 1/4 in x 2 1/2 in; 6.0325 cm x 18.415 cm x 6.35 cm
label: Measurements
content: tube: 6 1/8 in x 5/8 in; x 15.5575 cm x 1.5875 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall, inserts (flattened): 3 in x 7 in; 7.62 cm x 17.78 cm