Dentsply Cavitron, Model 660
notes: label: Description
content: Ultrasonic unit with a “Dentsply / CAVITRON” inscription. This was manufactured by Cavitron Ultrasonics, Inc., and introduced to the market in 1963, at a market price of about $800. The development owed much to Lewis Balamuth, Arthur Kuris, and Claus Kleesattel.
label: Description
content: Lewis Balamuth (b. 1906) received a physics PhD from Columbia University in 1934, with a dissertation involving the use of ultrasound to measure the elastic constants of crystals, and then landed a teaching job at City College. In 1941, his role as faculty advisor to the Frederick Douglass Society having led to accusations of Communist sympathies, Balamuth resigned from City College. Turning then to industry, he earned over 90 patents, most of them pertaining to ultrasound.
label: Description
content: Arthur Kuris (1913-2000) was born in Russia, came with his family to the United States in 1922, graduated from City College of New York, developed ways to cut and drill gemstones using ultrasound technology, and then established and served as President of Cavitron Equipment Corporation.
label: Description
content: Ref: Claus Kleesattel, Lewis Balamuth, and Arthur Kuris, “Acoustically Vibrated Material Cutting and Removing Devices,” U.S. Patent 3,076,904 (Feb. 5, 1963), assigned to Cavitron Corp.
label: Description
content: “Patented Ultrasonic Unit Cleans Teeth Painlessly,” New York Times (Feb. 9, 1963), pp. 9, 12.
label: Description
content: Lewis Balamuth, “Ultrasonics and Dentistry,” Sound (March-April 1963): 15-.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Cooper LaserSonics, Inc.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1985.0213.01
label: accession number
content: 1985.0213
label: catalog number
content: 1985.0213.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Ultrasonic Unit
label: Other Terms
content: Ultrasonic Unit; Dentistry
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 in x 13 in x 15 1/2 in; 22.86 cm x 33.02 cm x 39.37 cm