Iron lung is introduced in Boston.

Developed by Dr. Philip Drinker, with help from Louis Agassiz Shaw at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, it is first employed at Children’s Hospital. The first successful artificial respirator, it consists of a 3’x7′ galvanized iron box powered by two household vacuum cleaners that enables those whose lungs have been paralyzed by polio to breathe. The machine is first used to treat Barrett Hoyt, a 20-year-old Harvard student and Brighton resident. The machine is used to treat polio patients until a vaccine is developed in the 1950s.