MORE NUFFIELD BENEFICENCE

Evening Star, Issue 23123, 24 November 1938, Page 12

MORE NUFFIELD BENEFICENCE

WHOLESALE GIFTS OF IRON LUNGS DISTRIBUTION THROUGHOUT EMPIRE AUSTRALIAN DESIGN FAVOURED Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, November 23. (Received November 24, at 11.30 a.m.) Lord Nuffield has announced that he is providing every hospital and institution throughout the Empire with an iron lung of Australian design, of which it is expected 5,000 will be required. They will be available by March, 1939, and the cost is estimated at £500,000.

“ The immediate concern is the saving of life,” ' declared Lord Nuffield. “ The largest hospitals will receive three or four, and every institution throughout the Empire is entitled to one regardless of its whereabouts.” Questioned regarding Australia and New Zealand, he replied that there might be a difficulty, but if they wanted one it must be supplied. The iron lung is designed by a South Australian, Mr E. T. Both, and owes its creation to the Australian paralysis epidemic last year. Arrangements for its manufacture for Lord Nuffield have been made through Mr Both and the Adelaide firm of Messrs D. and J. Fowler, who are undertaking to service the apparatus for £1 a year. The requirements of the dominions and colonies ' will be (ascertained from the Agents-General, and the recipients will be required to pay the cost of transport from Oxford. The designer, Mr Both, visited London from Adelaide with a patent device for measuring heart beats. He heard a radio SOS for an iron lung, and offered the London County Council the design, which, as a result of the epidemic, had enabled South Australia, to manufacture it at half the price of the American patent. The South Australian Agency-Gene-ral has arranged for a window display and inquiries concerning the device have been received from all over the world. A hospital drew 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 onetenth of the present cost and onethirtieth of the cost of the American type. Lord Nuffield is making 1,000 immediately for presentation to British hospitals. After that he is making gifts to hospitals throughout the Empire. The South Australian engineer, Mr Both, built a plywood iron lung, costing £9B, which could be used by patients in their hotties, as it is easy to handle, with simple airtight devices and a zip-fastened rubber collar. The London County Coucil has improved a waistcoat for convalescents designed by Professor Burstall, of Melbourne, who declined to patent it on the grounds of its humanitarian value. The new design consists of two pieces adjustable to fit any patient. It will cost, with an electric pump, £3O. It is understood that Lord Nuffield will shortly again visit Australia. BENEFACTIONS TOTAL £13,000,000 LONDON, November 23. (Received November 24, at 1 p.m.) Lord Nuffield said he was most concerned. about isolated hospitals such as in Australia and Canada, where there was a long time between the call for the apparatus and its arrival. The new iron lung costs £9B, and consists largely of five-ply wood, the lightness of which reduces the transport problem. Lord Nuffield’s benefactions in recent years now total £13.000,000.