First baby incubatorIn 1888, a baby incubator was first used in the U.S. to care for an infant at State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, New York. Edith Eleanor McLean weighed 2-lb 7-oz. Originally called a "hatching cradle," the device was 3-ft square, 4-ft high, It was designed to increase the survival rate for premature infants by the maternity ward doctors, Drs. Allan M. Thomas and William C. Deming.* At the 1904 World's Fair, Tennessean E.M. Bayliss exhibited 14 metal-framed glass incubators with constant ventilation and temperature of 90ºF, attended by nurses caring for real endangered infants from orphanages and poor families. The care of the infants was paid for by the exhibit admission fee.«[Image: Incubator exhibited at 1904 World's Fair, St. Louis.] |
