Einthoven Electrocardiograph, 1915

Einthoven Electrocardiograph at the History of Pharmacy Collecion in Cluj-Napoca

Detail of the above

Detail of the above

The Einthoven electrocardiograph, produced in 1915 in Paris by manufacturer G. Boulitte, is the most significant exhibit of the medical equipment collection at the History of Pharmacy Museum in Cluj-Napoca. The first machine of this type was invented in 1903 by Willem Einthoven who won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1924. The machine on display, the size of a desk, has a single lead (contemporary ones have 12) and recorded the electric activity of the heart with the aid of electrodes placed on the skin. This item might well be the oldest electrocardiograph preserved from Romania. The machine, very significant for the history of medical technology in Transylvania and Romania in general, has been used and eventually donated to the museum by Prof. Dr. Ioan Zagrean from Cuj-Napoca.
The first mobile EKG machine was invented in 1937 and such later items are exhibited in the same area of the hall.

Medical equipment collection poster

Museum patrimony and collections from Romania will be presented in 2017 through a poster exhibition organized in Sibiu by the Brukenthal Museum. The "Pompiliu Manea" collection of medical equipment in display in the Hintz House in Cluj besides the history of pharmacy collection is one of the topics of such posters created by the specialists of the National History Museum of Transylvania.

I have presented the collection HERE.

And details of one of the items, an artificial breathing machine, HERE.

 

Mystery artificial breathing machine

The medical equipment collection of the History of Pharmacy Museum in Cluj includes a mystery item, lacking an inventory no and thus identification details. It is a mobile artificial breathing machine, probably used during surgery, under anesthesia.

Research through public consultation is ongoing for establishing its dating and production details. The suggested determination is mid twentieth century, manufactured in Chotěboř, the Czech Republic a.k.a. Czechoslovakia, possibly used on the front.

 

produced in Chotebor, the Czech Republic