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To change or withdraw your consent choices for ThoughtCo. The disastrous consequences of these experiments delayed the use of injections for years.
The first hypodermic needle was probably made by Francis Rynd in Dublin in , using the technology of annealing the edges of a folded flat strip of steel to make a tube. This was then drawn through increasingly narrower dies whilst maintaining the patency of the needle. The bevelled point is cut and ground, and then the hub is added with its variety of fittings and locks. A syringe has three elements, the barrel glass, plastic or metal , the plunger and the piston which may be of rubber, mineral, metal or synthetic material but in early examples waxed linen tape or asbestos was wound on a reel to obtain a watertight seal.
Charles Pravaz, in France, administered coagulant to sheep in , but it seems that Alexander Wood in Edinburgh combined a functional syringe with a hypodermic needle in the same year, to inject morphine into humans and probably should be credited with inventing the technique.
The basic design has remained unchanged though interchangeable parts and the use of plastic resulted in the almost universal use of disposable syringes and needles since the mids. They are also required for catheter-introduced surgical procedures in deep anatomical locations. Figure 1 shows three generations of needles. The top left ones are single-use needles from the s with various lengths and gauges.
At the top right is small sample of needles of a currently used type, supplied in a patent wrapper in their individual protective sheathes, with colour coded plastic hubs.
The internal point pierced the rubber bung on pre-dosed cartridges which could be inserted in the patent syringe. The range of needles is extensive. Each manufacturer produced a different shaped hub.
The gauge and length of needles varies greatly according to their purpose. Figure 2 illustrates infusion needles in which the bulbous hub fits directly on to rubber tubing.
Pneumothorax needles are for withdrawing air from the pleural cavity. The side arm allows for the attachment of a suction bottle using a two-way tap. The Hamilton Bailey type infusion canulae needles are eight from the early 20 th century, made of gold for sterility, with slots through which to thread a support tape. Figure 4. Shows aspiration needles. They have a bevel-pointed introducer to facilitate insertion of the needle.
Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Alexander Wood experimented with injected morphine to treat nerve conditions. He and his wife subsequently became addicted to morphine and his wife is recorded as the first woman to die of an injected drug overdose. In Letitia Mumford Geer of New York was granted a patent for a syringe design that permitted the user to operate it one-handed. However things got more interesting and advanced in when Chance Brothers in England produced the first all-glass syringe with an interchangeable barrel and plunger.
This was revolutionary because it allowed the mass-sterilization of the different components without needing to match up the individual parts. However, because polyethylene softens with heat, the syringes had to be chemically sterilised prior to packaging, which made them expensive. Two years later he produced the first injection-moulded syringes made of polypropylene , a plastic that can be heat-sterilised.
Millions were made for Australian and export markets. Then in a New Zealand pharmacist and inventor Colin Murdoch was granted patents for a disposable plastic syringe. It was closely followed by the Plastipak — a plastic disposable syringe introduced by Becton Dickinson in These days syringes are used, not only in the medical and health industry, but in various other areas too.
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