George Poe
George Poe, Jr. | |
|---|---|
 Poe and Arthur Ostrander, 1907 | |
| Born | May 8, 1846 Elkridge Landing, Maryland, US |
| Died | February 3, 1914 (aged 67) |
| Relatives | Edgar Allan Poe, cousin |
George Poe, Jr. (May 8, 1846 – February 3, 1914) was a pioneer of mechanical ventilation of asphyxiation victims.[1][2] He was the first person to manufacture nitrous oxide for commercial use.[3][4][5]
Birth
He was the son of George Poe Sr. and Elizabeth Ross Ellicott, who married on December 14, 1835.
Education and career
He attended the
Using the resources of his factory, Poe experimented with oxygen cylinders and tubing and found that he could resuscitate rats and rabbits that he had suffocated. In 1889, he undertook a nationwide tour. He claimed that his apparatus could revive humans who had drowned or been poisoned by gas lamps, and should be available in all hotels and lodging houses to deal with gas poisoning.[10]
Illness
Illness curtailed his activities. By 1900, he was nearly blind and partly paralyzed, and his doctors advised him to relocate to the country and retire. He moved to the Norfolk, Virginia, farm of a friend, Abram Cline Ostrander.[11][12] He found that he could continue his research by enlisting the help of Arthur Frederick Ostrander, the article states: "Not the least interesting feature of Prof. Poe's device is the fact that a mere 10-year-old lad, Arthur Ostrander, acted as eyes and hands for the almost sightless and semi-paralyzed scientist in the construction of the device", the young son of his friend.[13][14][15] Arthur Ostrander acted as Poe's eyes and hands, allowing him to further refine his device. In 1907 he began another tour, accompanied by Arthur Ostrander, and two Norfolk physicians, Dr. Francis Morgan and Dr. J. P. Jackson.[12] He gained fresh publicity in 1909 when a man called Moses Goodman was revived using his apparatus. Again, his health prevented him from doing much, and other inventors developed their own artificial respirators.
Death
He died on February 3, 1914, in Norfolk, Virginia. An obituary said that he had been nominated for a Nobel Prize.[4][10] He was buried in Confederate Square, a Civil War memorial situated within Magnolia Cemetery, in Norfolk.[16][17]
Patents
- U.S. patent 859,778 Artificial Respiration (1907)
- U.S. patent 978,641 Gas Generator I (1909)
- U.S. patent 929,875 Gas Generator II (1909)
- U.S. patent 859,778 Safety Breathing Armor (1911)
References
- National Public Radio. Retrieved 2008-07-06.
By asphyxiating rabbits, Poe was able to test his device — a pair of brass piston cylinders that could be operated with a handle. Before long, he was reviving rabbits. He moved on to larger and larger animals. In 1907 and '08, he traveled from city to city, demonstrating his invention for audiences of impressed physicians.
- ^ "An Artificial Respirator", Scientific American, June 22, 1907, page 515.
- New York Times. May 29, 1908.
An audience, composed of about thirty men and three or four women, most of the men being physicians, attended a demonstration of Prof. George Poe's machine for producing artificial respiration in the library of the Kings County Medical Society, at 1,313 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, last night, under the auspices of the First Legion of the Red Cross Society.
- ^ Washington Post. February 3, 1914. Retrieved 2007-12-29.. Mentioned for the Nobel Prize for Scientific Attainment in Chemistry. Prof. George Poe, a cousin of the poet Edgar Allan Poe, a noted scientist and inventor, who had been mentioned for the Nobel prize for scientific attainment, a former resident of Washington, died in Norfolk, Virginia, yesterday of general paralysis. Prof. Poe was in his sixty-eighth year.
Cousin of Famous Poet and Noted as a Scientist. Inventor of the Respirator. Also First to Liquefy Nitrous Oxide. Cadet at Virginia Military Institute at Time of Battle of New Market
- New York Times. February 4, 1914., yesterday. He was 68 years old and had held chairs in chemistry, especially as relating to gases.
George Poe, scientist and inventor and cousin of Edgar Allan Poe, died in Norfolk, Virginia
- ^ Maryland Marriage Index, 1655-1850
- ^ He had the following siblings: Harriet Poe (1839–?); Fanny Poe (1841–?); Elizabeth Poe (1844–?); Lucretia Poe (1850–?); and Mary Poe (1853–?).
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Trenton Times. August 17, 1883.
- ^ doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(07)60107-9., but his cousin George. For he had promised the audience a feat befitting his family name: this dog would be brought back from the dead.
One spring evening in 1908 three doctors stood before an expectant audience in the library of the Medical Society of the County of Kings in Brooklyn, New York. Before they began their demonstration, they needed one last thing. "Fetch a stray dog," they cried, tossing a quarter to an urchin outside. The boy returned with a yelping yellow mutt, which the doctors gently petted until it wagged its tail. Then they hog-tied and smothered it. The dog struggled for a few agonized minutes before giving a low moan and going limp. It was a scene worthy of Poe - not the great master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe
- ^ Abram Cline Ostrander was born on September 12, 1843, and died on October 2, 1914. Source: Ostrander: A Genealogical Record, 1660-1995, by Emmett and Vinton Ostrander, page 448; and death certificate of Abram Cline Ostrander from October 2, 1914.
- ^ Washington Times. January 27, 1907.
Not the least interesting feature of Prof. Poe's device is the fact that a mere 10 year old lad, Arthur Ostrander, acted as eyes and hands for the almost sightless and semi-paralyzed scientist in the construction of the device
- 1900 US Census
- The Frederick News-Post. April 25, 1907.
With the assistance of young Ostrander, he built a working model in line with the construction of the heart. ... The boy Arthur, of whom the Professor was fond, assisted in assembling the model, and in doing what the Professor's [palsied] hands and dim eyes could no longer do.
- ^ Ostrander: A Genealogical Record, 1660-1995, by Emmett and Vinton Ostrander, page 448
- Ledger-Dispatch. February 3, 1914.
- ^ Cemetery Records of Riverside-Magnolia Cemetery, Norfolk, Virginia