University Health Network - Academy of Medicine Collection
Category
Diagnostic & Treatment Artifacts
Classification
Cardiology
Accession Number
1979.9.2
Description
Sphygmograph has a square base with a motor attached; motor is operated by a hand lever; apparatus juts out above motor with a needle to make graphs when measuring pulse rate; cloth straps are attached, which are tied around the wrist; a rod marked off and numbered from 1 to 6 is on top of the need…
Sphygmograph has a square base with a motor attached; motor is operated by a hand lever; apparatus juts out above motor with a needle to make graphs when measuring pulse rate; cloth straps are attached, which are tied around the wrist; a rod marked off and numbered from 1 to 6 is on top of the needle and a metal block is at the top of the rod; there is a screw at bottom of base for winding the apparatus.
Number Of Parts
1
Provenance
Acquired from the Academy of Medicine; source: Dept. of Physiology, University of Toronto, via Dr. W. J. Scott.
Apparatus has a device for regulating tension; a weight is moved along a bar as in a metronome; tension device introduced by B. W. Richardson.
Blood pressure is measured and recorded using a sphygmograph. It is strapped to the wrist. The pulse beat is transmitted to a lever which records it on smoked paper. The first efficient sphygmograph was designed by Étienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904) in 1863. This example belonged to Dr Robert Ellis Dudgeon (1820-1904). He was a prominent figure in homeopathy. Dudgeon also made his own changes to Marey’s original design. It was made by instrument maker J. Gauter in 1876. In the late 1800s, physiology teachers used sphygmographs to visually demonstrate blood pressure. Instruments such as this were also valuable diagnostic aids. They were the predecessor of the modern arm cuffs physicians now use to measure blood pressure.