THE “IRON LUNG”

Evening Star, Issue 23219, 18 March 1939, Page 28

THE “IRON LUNG”

HOW AUSTRALIAN INVENTOR SAVED HUNDREDS CHANCE-HEARD BROADCAST (Fu Unit*d Pkzss Assocutiom.J AUCKLAND, March 17. How a young Australian answered a 8.8. C. broadcast appeal and used his inventive skill to save the Jives of countless people, stricken, by respiratory paralysis was revealed to-day. It was a chapter in the story of a through passenger on the liner Mariposa, Mr Edvard'T. Both, who is the inventor of the electro-cardiograph and the designer of the “ iron lungs” which are s being distributed throughout the Empire under Lord Nuffield’s scheme. _ Although a primitive form of respirator was developed by a Frenchman in the nineteenth century, the “ iron liing ” has become-an important factor in medical science only in recent years. It wa's developed by an American named Drinker,, hut. when, the epidemic of infantile paralysis occurred in , Australia in 1937, Both, who had gained a reputation at Adelaide University as an inventor of electro-medical apparatus, was asked by the South Australian Government to design a' lighter and more serviceable respirator. Working as many as*l6' hours a day, Both succeeded in his - task, and “ iron lungs ” of the cabinet type with air pressure controlled *by a’ bellows unit were - placed in immediate production. They played no small part in reducing the toll of the disease. “Last year I went to England to demonstrate an electro-cardiograph 1 had invented,” Mr Both said. “ This is a portable machine similar _ to a wireless set operating on the principle that every heart beat gives off a slight electric impulse. These are picked up by the sensitive equipment and immediately recorded in the_ form of a graph on a disc which is viewed through a small microscope.” While engaged in this work, he continued, he had heard an appeal broadcast by the 8.8. C. for an “ iron lung ” which was required urgently to save the life of a patient in a country hosfiital. Further inquiry showed that ives were being lost through the want, of respiratory equipment, and within 24 hours of tile radio announcement he had hired a small workshon and commenced the manufacture of equipment similar to the chean machines lie had designed in Australia, fn conjunction with the hospital staff of the London County Council, Mr Both worked feverishly in the ensuing weeks, and in re-

spouse to urgent demands from country districts ” iron lungs ’’ were transported by rail, road, and air to distant parts of Great Britain at all hours of the day and night. There was one occasion when a child suffering from infantile paralysis was given only an hour to live at Staniford ; in the Midlands, but the timely arrival of a respirator front London effected an amazing improvement within a few minutes, and the patient had now recovered. “ As a result of a film made at Oxford of various types of respirators in use, Lord Nuffield became interested in my design, and asked my permission to manufacture it for distribution throughout the Empire,” Mr Both continued. “ I was only too pleased' to adopt his proposals, with the, result that nearly 1,000 of this t,vpe of ‘iron lung ’ have been ordered in England alone in December. Every hospital in the world should get one, for I cap guarantee their efficiency and their extreme simplicity in operation. There is nothing that can be done'wrongly-.