Totally Implantable Artificial Heart
date: label: date made
content: ca 1969
label: date(s) of previous ownership
content: 1985-03-28
name: label: maker
content: Harmison, Lowell T.
notes: label: Description
content: In the 1960s, under the leadership of Lowell T. Harmison (1937-2011), a biotechnologist with a PhD from the University of Maryland, the Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (N.I.H.) developed an artificial heart and implanted examples in several calves. This is functional mockup of that device.
label: Description
content: Ref: Harold M. Schmeck, Jr., “Full Implanted Heart Devices Are Keeping 4 Calves Grazing,” New York Times (Oct. 20, 1969), p. 23.
label: Description
content: Lowell T. Harmison and Frank W. Hastings, Artificial Heart Program in Applied Health R/D (Bethesda, Md., [1970]).
label: Description
content: Lowell T. Harmison, “Totally Implantable Artificial Replacement Heart,” U.S. Patent 3,919,722 (Nov. 18, 1975).
label: Description
content: Shelley McKellar, Artificial Hearts: The Allure and Ambivalence of a Controversial Medical Technology (Baltimore, 2018).
label: Description
content: A functional mock up of a totally implantable artificial heart. Displayed on a wooden base covered with a sheet of metal with the battery in the middle of the display. Finally there is a monitor encased in a wood box, on a little pedestal. The monitor has a small screen and various knobs and switches. There are two rows of little lights marked Up/ Hold/ Down for monitoring heart rate. The mock-up was developed by Lowell T. Harmison, Ph.D., (1937-2011). He was the Director of the Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health from 1967 to 1974.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Maryland, Bethesda
topic: label: Subject
content: Cardiology
label: Subject
content: Artificial Organs
label: Subject
content: Medicine
label: Subject
content: Invention
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Government, Politics, and Reform
label: See more items in
content: Artificial Hearts
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Instiutes of Health
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1985.0329.03
label: accession number
content: 1985.0329
label: catalog number
content: 1985.0329.03
objectType: label: Object Name
content: heart, artificial, implantable
label: Object Name
content: total artificial heart
label: Other Terms
content: heart, artificial, implantable; Medicine
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 35 cm x 81.5 cm x 56 cm; 13 25/32 in x 32 3/32 in x 22 1/16 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 15 in x 32 in x 22 in; 38.1 cm x 81.28 cm x 55.88 cm