Syringe Set (2019.06.019)
Dublin Core
Title
Syringe Set (2019.06.019)
Subject
Nebraska State Tuberculosis Hospital, Dr. Burton Bancroft, Artifact, Syringe Set
Description
Syringe set. Set contains four blue/green glass syringes with seven removable/reusable needles. Also includes metal storage case. Metal case has two notches used as legs. There is a small dent on top of the lid.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: There is information about Dr. Burton Bancroft in the Frank Museum archives, as well as in the paper accession record. AW ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Syringes (and thus sets to hold syringes) first appeared in 1st century AD Roman and Greek journals. Though the syringe was used for medical procedures, they were used to put ointments, oils, and creams into the body. Later in the 9th century AD an Egyptian surgeon invented a hollow glass tube with suction syringe. The first “modern” syringe however was not invented until 1650 when French mathematician Blaise Pascal created a syringe that used Pascal’s law, his theory, “that pressure exerted anywhere in a confined fluid is transmitted equally in all directions and that the pressure variations remain the same”, which allowed the infusion of medicines. Early medical experiments using the syringe, however, usually resulted in death as doctors did not understand how much medicine to inject and the needles were unsterilized. As a result the syringe was seen as being “deadly”, and use and development stopped. In 1844, Irish doctor Francis Rynd invented a hollow needle. Shortly after it was attached to a plunger at the same time by French doctor Charles Pravaz and Scottish doctor Alexander Wood, thus allowing the syringe to more accurately pierce the skin. Wood is generally credited with inventing the medical hypodermic syringe as he was the first to use it for medical treatment on humans. Wood realized that by injecting morphine the human body’s nerves would become relaxed, though sadly both Wood and his wife would become addicted to morphine and his wife would become the first women to die from an injected drug overdose. The basic design remained unchanged, though a patent for a syringe that could be used with one hand was patented in 1899 by Letitia Mumford Geer of New York. The design was supposed to be one-use, but in times of material shortage the syringes would be reused, leading to the spread of disease. In 1946, the Chance Brothers in England created the first all-glass syringe with an interchangeable barrel and plunger, allowing the different parts of the syringe to be sterilized. Later came a slew of different variations on disposable, plastic syringes, but by the 1950s the use of disposable syringes and needles was considered standard. In the 1970s the modern day (2022) disposable syringes were introduced, and later in the late 1990s the K1 auto-disable syringe was invented, which was a system that locked the plunger once it was pushed down so the syringe could not be used again. Information gathered from: Omnisurge Medical Supplies (https://omnisurge.co.za/the-history-of-the-syringe/) The University of Queensland-Australia (https://medicine.uq.edu.au/blog/2018/12/history-syringes-and-needles) National Museums Scotland (https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/science-and-technology/syringes/). Information compiled by Logan Osmera.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: There is information about Dr. Burton Bancroft in the Frank Museum archives, as well as in the paper accession record. AW ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Syringes (and thus sets to hold syringes) first appeared in 1st century AD Roman and Greek journals. Though the syringe was used for medical procedures, they were used to put ointments, oils, and creams into the body. Later in the 9th century AD an Egyptian surgeon invented a hollow glass tube with suction syringe. The first “modern” syringe however was not invented until 1650 when French mathematician Blaise Pascal created a syringe that used Pascal’s law, his theory, “that pressure exerted anywhere in a confined fluid is transmitted equally in all directions and that the pressure variations remain the same”, which allowed the infusion of medicines. Early medical experiments using the syringe, however, usually resulted in death as doctors did not understand how much medicine to inject and the needles were unsterilized. As a result the syringe was seen as being “deadly”, and use and development stopped. In 1844, Irish doctor Francis Rynd invented a hollow needle. Shortly after it was attached to a plunger at the same time by French doctor Charles Pravaz and Scottish doctor Alexander Wood, thus allowing the syringe to more accurately pierce the skin. Wood is generally credited with inventing the medical hypodermic syringe as he was the first to use it for medical treatment on humans. Wood realized that by injecting morphine the human body’s nerves would become relaxed, though sadly both Wood and his wife would become addicted to morphine and his wife would become the first women to die from an injected drug overdose. The basic design remained unchanged, though a patent for a syringe that could be used with one hand was patented in 1899 by Letitia Mumford Geer of New York. The design was supposed to be one-use, but in times of material shortage the syringes would be reused, leading to the spread of disease. In 1946, the Chance Brothers in England created the first all-glass syringe with an interchangeable barrel and plunger, allowing the different parts of the syringe to be sterilized. Later came a slew of different variations on disposable, plastic syringes, but by the 1950s the use of disposable syringes and needles was considered standard. In the 1970s the modern day (2022) disposable syringes were introduced, and later in the late 1990s the K1 auto-disable syringe was invented, which was a system that locked the plunger once it was pushed down so the syringe could not be used again. Information gathered from: Omnisurge Medical Supplies (https://omnisurge.co.za/the-history-of-the-syringe/) The University of Queensland-Australia (https://medicine.uq.edu.au/blog/2018/12/history-syringes-and-needles) National Museums Scotland (https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/science-and-technology/syringes/). Information compiled by Logan Osmera.
Date
ca. 1950s
Contributor
For all objects in accession # 2019.06: Doctor's bag, medical equipment, medicine, and other items all originally belonged to Dr. Burton Bancroft who came to Kearney is 1956 and was the first trained surgeon in the community, according to John Bancroft- Dr. Burton Bancroft's son who found the the doctor's bag in a closet. The bag contained all of the items within accession record #2019.06. Dr. Bancroft occasionally provided aid to patients at the Nebraska State Hospital for Tuberculosis in Kearney, NE.
Still Image Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Metal, Glass Syringe Set
Collection
Citation
“Syringe Set (2019.06.019),” Museums and Material Culture (Fall 2023), accessed October 1, 2024, https://mail.unkpublichistory.reclaim.hosting/items/show/372.