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Curious medical instruments

Любопытные медицинские инструменты из нашего прошлого | Curious medical instruments

Curious medical instruments from our past

Strange and interesting arrangements of the Industrial Revolution designed for labor protection

The Industrial Revolution of XVIII-XIX centuries has resulted in a change of thinking. Revolution has associated not only with the beginning of mass use of cars, but also with the change of whole structure of society. It was accompanied by a sharp increase of labor productivity, urbanization, beginning of economic growth and improvement of living standards.

New working conditions - and new health risks - triggered scientific progress and appearance of first means of biological and chemical protection. In the end, maintaining the health of the workers was the basis of the success of the factories and mines. Production sanitation existed in the era of guilds, but in this period, the requirements for it have increased.

Psychrometer

In the mid-1920s so psychrometer measured temperature. The device consisted of two thermometers, one - standard dry air thermometry, the second had a wet swab. Turn psychrometer determined by the relative humidity. Biological protection means used to determine the quality of the working environment in factories and bakeries.

There has appeared sections such as electrical safety. Mechanical installation have become a source of injury for which medicine has become adapted. The invention of X-ray work, science gypsum revived; gauze production process was mastered in the textile industry. The glass industry has learned to create a low cost syringe and flasks for tests and medicines. There has appeared fire services, and in this section, in addition to direct cars, a major milestone was the creation of waterproof hoses.

Industrial hazard that determined the creation of means of biological and chemical protection, became dust (in the mines, in the steel and coal plants, and even on the streets of major cities), high temperature and humidity (for steam plant workers), intoxication (in the chemical industry), etc.

Konimeter

In the mid-1940s amount of dust at mines and factories was measured by Konimeter. The unit took a portion of the air and blew it on a glass plate. Dust settled on a plate, and under the microscope, the researcher studied and counted particles.

Safety management - organization of work to reduce injuries and accidents, occupational diseases, improvement of working conditions on the basis of a set of tasks on creation of safe and harmless working conditions. It has appeared at that time. The result of reflection of researchers became appearance of original and – sometimes - frightening means of biological and chemical protection. In addition to the personal protective equipment there was made meters of environmental parameters and instruments for rapid diagnosis of disease.

Hellige Haemometr

Mid 1940s. Small set includes a dropper stick for stirring, eye dropper, a bottle of hydrochloric acid, stickers and syringe. The doctor quickly determined the level of the patient's hemoglobin with this kit. Color drop of blood to check with the color table, the color is correlated with the concentration of hemoglobin. Blood diseases were frequent pathologies among chemical production workers.

Mines became deeper with the increase of coal production. Methane began to appear in the mines. Since 1890, burning was suggested to deal with methane in addition to shafts ventilation.

Miner put on the cover and set methane on fire by a torch.

Devi’s and Wolf’s Lamp

In 1815, one hundred years after the first major explosion of mine gas, an English chemist and physicist Gumfri Davy proposed a safety lamp for the mines.

If the flame is covered with pieces of copper mesh, the latter will cool the gas so that the combustion will not apply on the other side of the net. In the presence of mine gas around the lamp will be elongated as bluish light, called an aura - but the explosion did not follow - which will serve as a warning to the miners. Over time, the combustion sources in the lamp changed accordingly to technological progress - wool, gasoline, acetylene battery.

Medical progress is inextricably linked to wars. Almost all the innovations and means of biological and chemical protection initially were tested on the battlefield. N.I. Pirogov first used the impregnated starch bandages for fixation of fractures and conducted 50,000 operations under ether during the Russian-Turkish war of 1955. Before the invention of anesthesia fix any ailment was probably more painful than the disease.

Ethereal unit, circa 1900-1910.

Doctors and dentists began to use ether as an anesthetic since the 1840s. In Russia, Norway and France air drinking, arranging the evening dedicated to its use. Eventually chloroform came to the forefront.