John Haven Emerson

John Haven Emerson (1906 to 1997) was an American inventor of biomedical devices who specialized in respiratory equipment and is best known for improving the iron lung. In the early 1930s, when a polio epidemic was beginning, he reworked the design used by Philip Drinker, replacing blowers and valves with a flexible two layer diaphragm. His machine was quieter, lighter and more efficient, and it sold for less than half the price. Drinker sued, but lost and saw his patent invalidated. Emerson later built an automatic resuscitator, an anesthesia assistor, the Emerson Postop suction pump and helped develop a cough assist machine. His first iron lung, nicknamed Old Number One, is held by the Smithsonian Institution.