“IRON LUNGS”

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 38, 24 November 1938, Page 5

“IRON LUNGS”

GIFT BY LORD NUFFIELD.

EVERY HOSPITAL IN EMPIRE.

AN AUSTRALIAN INVENTION

(United Press Association—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 10.25 a.m.)

LONDON, November 23. Viscount Nuffield announced that he will provide every hospital and institution throughout the Empire with an “iron lung” of Australian design. It is expected that the 5000 required will be available by March, 1939. The cost is estimated at £500,000. “My immediate concern is the saving of life,” declared Lord Nuffield. “The largest hospitals will receive three or four. Every institution throughout the Empire is entitled to one, regardless of its whereabouts.” ’Lord Nuffield added that he was most concerned about isolated hospitals such as in Australia and Canada, where there is a long time between the call for apparatus and arrival. The new iron lung, which costs £9B, consists largely of five-ply wood. Its lightness reduces the transport problem .

Questioned regarding Australia and New Zealand, Lord Nuffield replied that there might be a difficulty, but if they wanted one it must he supplied. The “iron lung” is designed by a South Australian, Mr E. T. Both, and owes its creation to the epidemic of paralysis in Australia last year. Arrangements for its manufacture for Lord Nuffield were made through Mr Both and the Adelaide firm of D. and J. Fowler, which is undertaking to service the apparatus for £1 annually. The requirements of the Dominions and Colonies will be ascertained from the Agents-General, and recipients will be required to .pay the cost of transport from Oxford.

The designer visited London from Adelaide with a patent device for measuring heartbeats. He heard a radio SOS for an “iron lung,” and offered the London County Council a design which enabled .South Australia to manufacture it at half the price of the American patent. The South Australian Agent-General has arranged for a window display, and inquiries concerning the device have been received from all over the world. A hospital vdrew the attention of Lord Nuffield to the matter, and he invited Mr Both to interview him, undertaking to manufacture the “iron lung” at the Morris works at perhaps one-tenth the present cost and one-thirtieth the cost of the American type. Lord Nuffield is making 1000 immediately for presentation to British hospitals, thereafter making gifts to hospitals throughout the Empire. Mr Both built Plywood iron lung, at a cost of £9B, which could he used .by patients in their homes, as it was easy to handle, with simple airtight devices and zip-fastened rubber collar. The London County Council has an improved waistcoat for convalescents, designed by Professor Burstall, of Melbourne, who declined to. patent it o;i the ground of its humanitarian value., The now design consists of two pieces adjustable to fit any patient. It cost, with an electric pump, £3O. It is understood that Lord Nuffield will shortly again visit Australia. Lord Nuffield’s benefactions in recent years are nearly £13,000,000.