6. J.S. Haldane’s creepy, life-saving oxygen therapy apparatus
WWI was without a doubt, the age of poison gases, which led to advances in ways of fighting their deadly effects. In 2015, the Germans were the first to wage a full-scale assault using poison gases, something that was considered a war crime per the Hague Declaration of 1899 and the 1907 Hague Convention. But the gases effectively reached behind enemy lines, so the reasons why the Germans did this are understandable if horrible. Chlorine gas was used on Allied forces in the first attack in the spring of 2015. It works by destroying a victim’s lungs and respiratory system in mere hours. British medical personnel was ill-equipped for such a devastating new weapon.
Enter J.S. Haldane
British physiologist and philosopher John Scott Haldane was noted for his research on the physiology of the respiratory system. He developed numerous procedures for studying the physiology of breathing and physiology of the blood, which enabled him to analyze gases consumed or produced by the body. So he traveled to the front lines to research which gases were used and how to lessen their impact. Thus he came up with the peculiar-looking oxygen therapy apparatus, which was based on the discovery that increasing oxygen levels in the blood helped counter the effects of the deadly gases. Those four stretchy tubes ended in suction masks that treated four people concurrently. It became a crucial part of the gas treatment units stationed on the front lines.
7. The prosthetic eyes have it
Explosions, deadly gases, bullets, and venereal diseases caused considerable eye damage during WWI and there was little medical advancement that could help soldiers regain eyesight. But artificial eyes had been developed, and in a nearly three-year period from December 1916 through August 1919, more than 22,000 glass eyes were distributed across Britain by the Army Spectacle Depot. U.S. soldiers on Europe’s frontlines also had a pressing need for glass eyes, mostly due to firearms and flying, splintering shrapnel. Disease and the habit of drinking wood alcohol, which destroys eyesight also played a part. Over time, more than 800 American soldiers and sailors were blinded in one or both eyes.
The U.S. was in a bind. Germany was one of the largest manufacturers of optical glass, exporting just under 400,000 tons of optical glass annually by 1912. Only 25 percent made its way to Great Britain and the U.S. So the allied nations were beholden to Germany for the necessary materials. To remedy the situation, companies like Bausch & Lomb, the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company and the Spencer Lens Company began producing optical glass en masse in 1917. Over the course of one year, scientists produced more than 650,000 pounds of glass to benefit the war effort. Soldiers were usually fitted with eyes that were painted to match the one that remained.