Allen Heart Monitor
date: label: date made
content: about 1957
name: label: maker
content: Allen Electric & Equipment Company
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: The Allen Heart Monitor was designed for use in the operating room to keep track of the patients pulse. The manufacturer’s brochure which accompanies the monitor suggests it can also be used in the delivery room, the recovery room, and, in the general practitioner’s office. The monitor came with an eight-foot lead,
label: Description (Brief)
content: The Allen Heart Monitor was developed by Dr. Frederick J. Margolis a pediatrician from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Margolis earned his M.D. at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Besides the heart monitor, Margolis held two patents, a pediatric clinical thermometer (1955), and with Clayton K. Cole an infant respirator (1984). He was also an early pioneer in the use of film for teaching and diagnostics.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Dr. Margolis began developing the heart monitor in 1951. All his written correspondence refers to the monitor as “a gadget”. He commissioned Wendell Zeluff of Kalamazoo to build an electronic device for measuring blood pressure. The work involved a total of one-hundred hours at a cost of $400.00. Early correspondence indicates he and his financial partners were at one time in negotiations with the Becton-Dickinson Company. On November 13, 1956 Dr. Margolis entered into an agreement with Allen Electric and Equipment Company for 5% of sales for the heart monitor. In 1958 the heart monitor could be purchased for $157.00.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The monitor is a rectangular black and gold-colored box with a black plastic handle. The gold-colored face of the box includes a neon globe tube, an audio knob, a sensitivity knob calibrated from 1 to 10, and an electronic amplifier. The light of the glass tube flashes and a clicking sound is heard with every heartbeat. It is powered by three batteries.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Michigan, Kalamazoo
topic: label: Subject
content: Cardiology
label: Subject
content: Pediatrics
label: Subject
content: Medicine
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Susan H. Houseman
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2017.0078.01
label: accession number
content: 2017.0078
label: catalog number
content: 2017.0078.01
label: model number
content: 32-01
label: serial number
content: B 8 E
objectType: label: Object Name
content: heart monitorAllen Heart Monitor
label: Object Name
content: heart monitor
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 16.6 cm x 18.4 cm x 9 cm; 6 17/32 in x 7 1/4 in x 3 17/32 in