Portable blood transfusion apparatus housed in upright brown varnished wood box (a) with hinged front lid and two metal latches on left opening side and brass key lock, key missing; interior with portion of top of box hinged to open for access to removable upper shelf (c) and pull out wood drawer (…
Portable blood transfusion apparatus housed in upright brown varnished wood box (a) with hinged front lid and two metal latches on left opening side and brass key lock, key missing; interior with portion of top of box hinged to open for access to removable upper shelf (c) and pull out wood drawer (b) on bottom; two clear hand blown glass bottles (e-f), one with graduated measurements from 20 to 1100 cc in 20 cc gradations and the other without markings are held in place by a removable shaped wood piece (d) with a metal snap latch to join this piece to the built in wood shelf; bottles with wedge shaped red rubber plugs with a pair of glass rods descending into the bottle interior, with multiple and long red rubber tubes attached to glass rods on top of plugs; apparatus (g) of rubber tubes with a series of three metal clamps, two glass cylinders one filled with white cotton batting and one ‘T’ shaped glass connector rod all leading to a pair of long glass rods in ‘U’ shape attached to hinged door with wood toggles have bulbous tops and one bulb is open, placed in front of a pale yellow printed measurement guide with gradation from the center number “0” at the middle and measurements decreasing below and above by 20 ending in ‘30’ at both ends; several wood parts have hand written numbers while the bottle holder has a stamped number; bottles with minor bubbles in glass with etched interior of neck; silver stainless steel needle (h) with removable screw off top and similar style of trocar (i) with removable sections to change size of trocar stored inside.
Number Of Parts
9
Part Names
a – case: 46.4 cm Height x 28.3 cm Width x 21.3 cm Depth
b – drawer: 26.3 cm Length x 28.3 cm Width x 21.3 cm Depth
c – shelf: 26.3 cm Length x 15.9 cm Height x 0.6 cm Depth
d – bottle holder: 26.3 cm Length x 5.6 cm Width x 1.0 cm Depth
e – f -bottle: 26.3 cm Height x 5.6 cm Diam
g – rubber apparatus
h - needle: 12.4 cm Length x 3.3 cm Width x 0.8 cm Depth
I - trocar: 11.8 cm Length x 3.5 cm Width x 1.0 cm Depth
Provenance
Collected by Dr. Fransman, donor's father.
Dates
1910
1920
circa 1910-1920
Material
wood: brown
rubber: tan
glass: transparent
metal: silver
leather: brown
Inscriptions
Stamped on trocar: "HOLBONDS // LONDON"; on latch of bottle holder: "BRITISH // PAT NO // 165333 // MADE"
Permanent Location
Storage Room 0007
0007-Q2-1
Temporary Location
On-site exhibit: "Trench Menders: Health Care in the First World War," 25 Feb, 2023.
Unit Of Measure
centimeters
Condition Remarks
Condition report created by Canadian War Museum, 25 June 2018; in donor file
Copy Type
original
Reference Types
Internet
Reference Comments
Wikipedia
Research Facts
Beginning with William Harvey's experiments on the circulation of blood, research into blood transfusion began in the 17th century, with successful experiments in transfusion between animals. However, successive attempts by physicians to transfuse animal blood into humans gave variable, often fatal, results.
James Blundell in london, UK, successfully transfused human blood in 1818. The largest series of early successful transfusions took place at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary between 1885 and 1892. Edinburgh later became the home of the first blood donation and blood transfusion services. It was not until 1901, when the Austrian Karl Landsteiner discovered three human blood groups (O, A, and B), that blood transfusion was put onto a scientific basis and became safer.
The First World War acted as a catalyst for the rapid development of blood banks and transfusion techniques. Canadian doctor and Lieutenant Lawrence Bruce Robertson was instrumental in persuading the Royal Army Medical Corps to adopt the use of blood transfusion at the Casualty Clearing Stations for the wounded. In October 1915, Robertson performed his first wartime transfusion with a syringe to a patient suffering from multiple shrapnel wounds. He followed this up with four subsequent transfusions in the following months.
Dr. Fransman graduated from medical school in 1940 and lived in Amsterdam. Worked in Holland, England during WWII. Came to Kingston General Hosptial, Ontario in 1951 as a chest specialist and managed the TB clinincs. Radiologist specialist in 1960 and managed the x-ray department at Kingston General Hosptial, retiring in 1983. Post-retirement he worked at the Collins Bay prison, Kingston Psychiatric Hopsital, Ongwanada and St. Mary's of the Lake, retiring again in 1996.
Exhibit History
On exhibit 100TH Anniversary of Public Health Canada, Ottawa L-2019-7 27 Nov – 2 Dec 2019
On loan L-2018-6 Canadian War Musuem for exhibit 'Last 100 Days of the First World War' 17 May 2018 - 20 April 2019