This machine is an iron lung. Many people who sufferred from the crippling disease polio used it to help them breathe. “Poliomyelitis” is a viral dosease that invades the parts of the nervous system that control muscles. It can lead to weakness and even paralysis. Many victims were unable to breathe on their own and had to use an iron lung. People whose lungs were affected would have to live inside the machines with only their heads sticking out. Iron lungs worked by pumping all the air out of the inside of the machime, whiched forced the patient to breathe in.
Luckily, you don’t see iron lungs in use anymore because a research scientist named Jonas Salk developed a vaccine that conquered polio. In 1952, Salk learned how to inactivate the polio virus so that a vaccine could be developed. Polio has almost been eliminated from the world. Even so, it is important to keep immunizing people. If too many people don’t get immunized, the dreaded disease could make a comeback.
I can remember seeing people in these on telethons when I was a kid.
Info from the St. Louis Science Center
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