The Machinery of Anaesthesia
The first anaesthetic “machine” was an ether-soaked rag. John Snow introduced precision inhalers in the 1840s. Henry Boyle’s 1917 machine brought standardization. Carbon dioxide absorption enabled closed-circuit anaesthesia. The Copper Kettle vaporizer (1952) allowed precise delivery of potent agents. Today’s integrated workstations represent a century of innovation—each improvement making anaesthesia safer and more controllable.
