Philip Drinker

Philip Drinker (1894 to 1972) was an American industrial hygienist and engineer who invented the first iron lung, a respirator that helped save people paralyzed by polio and similar conditions. Born in Haverford, Pennsylvania, he graduated from Princeton in 1915 and became an instructor of industrial hygiene at Harvard, then joined its new School of Public Health in 1923. There he developed and patented the respirator, an idea that grew out of his research on resuscitation of victims of gas poisoning and electric shock. Early models enclosed the whole body, while later ones left the head outside a sealed chamber with a collar at the neck. A second patent in 1933 added openings so that a nurse or doctor could reach the patient. The first such machine was used in 1928 to help a girl with infantile paralysis breathe, and demand rose sharply during the polio outbreaks of the 1930s.