This newsletter reported the doings of the salesmen of Marchant Calculating Machine Company, particularly outstanding sales and exceeding quotas. Issues present date from October, 1927 to May, 1930 and include Numbers 11, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28, and 34.
A normal human heart has four chambers. Each chamber has a valve: the tricuspid, the mitral, the aortic, and the pulmonary. As the heart muscle contacts, the mitral and tricuspid valves close and the pulmonary and aortic valves open, directing blood to flow in one direction. When one or more valves do not work properly, they might need to be repaired or replaced.
The causes of heart valve malfunction are numerous, and can include congenital malformation or acquired heart disease. Artificial heart valves were the first mechanical replacements of a natural organism in a human.
Pioneering heart surgeon Dr. Charles Hufnagel (1916-1989) began working on the developed of artificial heart valves in 1947, and the first clinical implantation occurred in 1952. The patient's natural valve was left in place and the mechanical valve was placed in the descending aorta, aiding the damaged valve.
Many artificial heart valves were developed in the early 1960s. This Magovern-Cromie caged ball valve was first implanted in a patient in 1962. It was developed by Dr. George Magovern of the University of Pittsburgh and engineer Harry Cromie. The struts and the small hooks are made of titanium. The hooks at the base of the valve replaced the need for sutures and shortened the time of the operation. Thousands of Magovern-Cromie artificial valves were manufactured and implanted until production ceased in 1980.
Yorick is a plastic male skeleton imbedded with electronic and mechanical devices used to replace worn body parts. Yorick was created by Ed Mueller, an engineer in the Division of Mechanical and Material Sciences at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in Washington, D.C.
Yorick often made appearances at schools, Scout meetings, and hospitals to educate students about bionics and current research on implant design development.
Some of the devices implanted in Yorick are: cranial plate, silicone nose, carbon tooth root, interocular lens, cochlear implant, heart valve, artificial heart, cardiac pacemaker, infusion port, vascular grafts, urinary sphincter prosthesis, artificial patella, bone plate, artificial tendons, bone growth stimulator, and artificial hip, knee, elbow, and finger joints.
The AbioCor Total Artificial Heart is the first electro-hydraulic artificial heart implanted in a human. Approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for clinical trials, this AbioCor artificial heart was implanted in Robert Tools by cardiac surgeons Laman A. Gray Jr. and Robert D. Dowling on July 2, 2001, at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. The historic operation marked the first time an artificial heart was used as a permanent replacement for a human heart since the air-powered Jarvik-7 artificial heart more than fifteen years before.
The AbioCor is a two-chamber pump designed to perform like a natural human heart. It is powered by batteries, and pumps more than 2.5 gallons of blood a minute to the lungs and then to the rest of the body.
Tools, who suffered from irreversible congestive heart failure, chose to have his diseased heart removed and replaced with the plastic and titanium pump. He lived for five months, well beyond the clinical trials goal of sixty days.
The development of the AbioCor involved a team of engineers, scientists, and physicians from across the United States. Completely contained within the body, no tubes protrude through the skin, nor is the patient tethered to a noisy bedside console, as with air-powered hearts. Instead the heart is powered by rechargeable batteries and microcomputer technology that regulates the heartbeat according to the patient's activities.
The Marchant Calculating Machine Company distributed to its sales force an illustrated publication called "The Field." Thes twenty issues of the publication date from 1929-1930 and 1932-1933 (the series is incomplete). They stress comparisons of various sales offices in meeting quotas.
This oil flask, designed by Charles Lindbergh, was used in conjunction with the Lindbergh-Carrel perfusion pump (see record MG*M-09361) in experiments at Rockefeller Institute to keep small animal organs alive outside of the body. The organ was kept sterile within the inner chambers of the perfusion pump while a nutrient-rich fluid was pumped into the organ’s artery. The oil flask provided the pulsating power for the system. When connected to the pump, the flask operated like an oil piston to drive the nutrient solution through the animal organ. The flask, like the perfusion pump, was made from Pyrex glass by master glassblower Otto Hopf, who worked at Rockefeller Institute at the time Alexis Carrel (1873–1944) was carrying out his investigations in tissue and organ culture.
The oil flask consists of two chambers and seven openings. When in operation it was partially filled with oil and connected through rubber tubing to a gas cylinder, an air tank, and several perfusion pumps. Pulses of air entered the outer chamber of the flask at the lower valve, driving oil up through the inner chamber and compressing the control gas, which entered the upper chamber at one of the top valves. This compressed gas transmitted pulses of pressure to the perfusion pumps, which drove the perfusion fluid through the pump and to the animal organ resting in the upper chamber. The oil flask was designed to operate three perfusion pumps, a configuration that was utilized by Lindbergh and Carrel in their experiments. Lindbergh describes in detail the perfusion pump, oil flask, and the apparatus assembly in his 1935 article “An Apparatus for the Culture of Whole Organs” and in the 1938 book The Culture of Organs.
Sources:
Carrel, Alexis, and Charles A. Lindbergh. The Culture of Organs. New York: P.B. Hoeber, Inc., 1938.
Lindbergh, C. A. “An Apparatus for the Culture of Whole Organs.” The Journal of Experimental Medicine 62.3 (1935): 409–31. PMC. Web. 14 July 2015. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2133279/
This perfusion pump was invented by aviator Charles Lindbergh and Dr. Alexis Carrel, recipient of the 1912 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for his work in vascular surgery.
The glass pump was used to preserve animal organs outside the body, by pushing "artificial blood" through the pump and into the organ by way of a tube connected to the organ's artery keeping the organ alive for weeks. The Lindbergh-Carrel perfusion pump led to the development of the heart-lung machine and the feasibility of stopping the heart for open-heart surgery.
Ref: Emily Redman, “To Save His Dying Sister-in-Law, Charles Lindbergh Invented a Medical Device,” Smithsonian Magazine (Sept. 9, 2015).
This perfusion pump was invented by aviator Charles Lindbergh and Dr. Alexis Carrel, recipient of the 1912 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for his work in vascular surgery.
The glass pump was used to preserve animal organs outside the body, by pushing "artificial blood" through the pump and into the organ by way of a tube connected to the organ's artery keeping the organ alive for weeks. The Lindbergh-Carrel perfusion pump led to the development of the heart-lung machine and the feasibility of stopping the heart for open-heart surgery.
In a series of experiments between 1972 and 1974 Stanley Cohen, Herbert Boyer, and their colleagues, at Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco, developed techniques that formed the basis of recombinant DNA technology and helped spur the birth of the biotechnology industry.
This notebook was used by Stanley Cohen in his lab at Stanford University from January of 1972 through 1978 in his study of plasmids—a specific form of DNA found in some organisms, especially of bacteria. It chronicles his research on creating recombinant plasmids, starting with his efforts to break plasmids through mechanical shearing and following through his ground-breaking experiments employing restriction enzymes with Herbert Boyer.
While not technically a lab notebook—one containing a log of daily experiments—the notebook contains extra information on experiments, many sketches and maps of recombinant plasmids, and outlines for papers to be published (including on p. 51 the “Outline for Recombination Paper” that would become the paper “Construction of Biologically Functional Bacterial Plasmids In Vitro” published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences in 1973.)
Scientists knew since 1959 that bacteria contain extra loops of DNA called “plasmids” in addition to their chromosome. In nature, bacteria can swap these plasmids with one another, quickly transferring beneficial genes like those that code for antibiotic resistance. By the early 1970s, investigators had isolated several plasmids as well as special enzymes known as “restriction endonucleases” that worked like scissors to cut open the loops of plasmids. Boyer had expertise with restriction endonucleases, and Cohen studied plasmids. After meeting at a conference in 1972, the two decided to combine their research efforts. Following preliminary experiments in 1973, the Cohen-Boyer team was able to cut open a plasmid loop, insert a gene from different bacteria and close the plasmid. This created a recombinant DNA molecule—a plasmid containing recombined DNA from two different sources.
Next, they inserted the plasmid into bacteria and demonstrated that the bacteria could use the new genes. They had created the first genetically modified organisms. A year later, the team used this technique to insert a gene from a frog into bacteria, proving that it was possible to transfer genes between two very different organisms. The technology for creating these “molecular chimeras” was patented on December 2, 1980 (U.S. Patent 4,237,224.)
The concept that genes from one organism could be inserted into another and still work was the foundation for the biotechnology industry, which emerged a few years later. Biotech companies use recombinant DNA to insert genes coding for useful products into bacteria and other organisms, turning them into tiny factories for making things from medicine to industrial chemicals. The earliest application of this technology was in the pharmaceutical industry. Learn more about this by searching for “Recombinant Pharmaceuticals” in our collection.
In the early 1990s Genzyme Transgenics (later known as GTC Biotherapeutics) began efforts to genetically engineer goats to produce the human protein antithrombrin in their milk. In 2009 antithrombrin from goat milk, sold under the name ATryn, became the first drug produced by genetically engineered farm animals to be approved by the FDA.
While manufacturing drugs through genetically engineered organisms had been in practice since the mid-1980s, those efforts relied on microorganisms or cell lines grown in large factory-sized fermenters. Some people speculated that genetically engineered goats and other so-called “pharm animals” could make a more cost-effective source of drugs because they were less expensive to raise, provided greater quantities of drug products, and could more efficiently manufacture drugs that were difficult for single-cell organisms to produce.
This pin, an advertisement for Genzyme Transgenics, features an image of a goat breaking through a brick wall. It was collected at a biotechnology trade show in 1995.
Sources:
Accession File
“The Land of Milk and Money.” Stix, Gary. Scientific American. November 2005. p. 102.
“Drug From a Goat with a Human Gene.” Pollack, Andrew. New York Times. 7 February 2009. p. B1.
Carl Woese, a microbiologist and evolutionary biologist, used this electrophoresis tank in pioneering research on the evolution of bacteria. His work established that evolutionary relationships between organisms could be found using genetic differences, not just morphology (the way they look).
Woese made his career at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where early on he searched for a way to classify species of bacteria. In the early 1960s, scientists developed evolutionary trees mainly by comparing species' morphological differences. Simple, single-celled organisms like bacteria, however, lack the complex morphology necessary for this kind of comparison.
A biophysicist by training, Woese looked to differences in the chemical makeup of bacteria to help classify them. Woese chose ribosomal RNA (rRNA) as his molecule of comparison, specifically a section of the rRNA called the 16S portion. Ribosomal RNA made a good target molecule for several reasons. Most importantly, its sequence (the order of its individual molecules) tends to be highly conserved. This means that there is not a wide variety of changes over time or between species, so there are a smaller number of differences to compare between organisms. What’s more, all living things contain rRNA, therefore it can be used to compare any two species. Finally, it’s relatively easy to extract from cells.
Woese's team for the project included Ralph S. Wolfe, George E. Fox, William E. Balch, Kenneth R. Luehrsen, and Linda J. Magrum. In the lab, they cut the rRNA into small fragments and sequenced the shorter fragments. Next, they searched for differences in the sequences between bacterial species. Part of this work entailed separating fragments from one another according to their electrical charges. The task was completed using this electrophoresis tank. The team’s findings suggested that comparing molecular differences between species was indeed an effective way to discern evolutionary relationships. What’s more, they discovered that some of the bacterial species were so distinct from others that they necessitated a new branch on the tree of life—“Archaea.” At the time, scientists divided life between just two branches—prokaryotes and eukaryotes.
At first the larger scientific community was skeptical of the Archaea addition. With time and growing evidence through the 1980s, however, they accepted Woese’s findings. Today, genetic and molecular comparisons between species are the primary tool for figuring out evolutionary relationships.
Sources:
Collections Committee Memo, Accession File 2013.0281, National Museum of American History.
Norman R. Pace, Jan Sapp, and Nigel Goldenfeld, “Phylogeny and beyond: Scientific, historical, and conceptual significance of the first tree of life,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109, no. 4 (2012): 1011–18.
Exhibition Booklet, Uncovering Life’s Third Domain: The Discovery of the Archaea, The Institute for Genomic Biology and the Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Carl Woese et al., “A Comparison of the 16S Ribosomal RNAs from Mesophilic and Thermophilic Bacilli: Some Modifications in the Sanger Method for RNA Sequencing,” Journal of Molecular Evolution 7, no. 3 (1976): 197–213.
Carl Woese, a microbiologist and evolutionary biologist, used this electrophoresis tank in pioneering research on the evolution of bacteria. His work established that evolutionary relationships between organisms could be found using genetic differences, not just morphology (the way they look).
Woese made his career at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where early on he searched for a way to classify species of bacteria. In the early 1960s, scientists developed evolutionary trees mainly by comparing species' morphological differences. Simple, single-celled organisms like bacteria, however, lack the complex morphology necessary for this kind of comparison.
A biophysicist by training, Woese looked to differences in the chemical makeup of bacteria to help classify them. Woese chose ribosomal RNA (rRNA) as his molecule of comparison, specifically a section of the rRNA called the 16S portion. Ribosomal RNA made a good target molecule for several reasons. Most importantly, its sequence (the order of its individual molecules) tends to be highly conserved. This means that there is not a wide variety of changes over time or between species, so there are a smaller number of differences to compare between organisms. What’s more, all living things contain rRNA, therefore it can be used to compare any two species. Finally, it’s relatively easy to extract from cells.
Woese's team for the project included Ralph S. Wolfe, George E. Fox, William E. Balch, Kenneth R. Luehrsen, and Linda J. Magrum. In the lab, they cut the rRNA into small fragments and sequenced the shorter fragments. Next, they searched for differences in the sequences between bacterial species. Part of this work entailed separating fragments from one another according to their electrical charges. The task was completed using this electrophoresis tank. The team’s findings suggested that comparing molecular differences between species was indeed an effective way to discern evolutionary relationships. What’s more, they discovered that some of the bacterial species were so distinct from others that they necessitated a new branch on the tree of life—“Archaea.” At the time, scientists divided life between just two branches—prokaryotes and eukaryotes.
At first the larger scientific community was skeptical of the Archaea addition. With time and growing evidence through the 1980s, however, they accepted Woese’s findings. Today, genetic and molecular comparisons between species are the primary tool for figuring out evolutionary relationships.
Sources:
Collections Committee Memo, Accession File 2013.0281, National Museum of American History.
Norman R. Pace, Jan Sapp, and Nigel Goldenfeld, “Phylogeny and beyond: Scientific, historical, and conceptual significance of the first tree of life,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109, no. 4 (2012): 1011–18.
Exhibition Booklet, Uncovering Life’s Third Domain: The Discovery of the Archaea, The Institute for Genomic Biology and the Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Carl Woese et al., “A Comparison of the 16S Ribosomal RNAs from Mesophilic and Thermophilic Bacilli: Some Modifications in the Sanger Method for RNA Sequencing,” Journal of Molecular Evolution 7, no. 3 (1976): 197–213.
This jumpsuit was worn by a scientist from Advanced Genetic Systems during the first release of genetically modified microorganisms into the environment approved by the federal government.
The organisms, a genetically modified version of naturally occurring bacteria from the genus Pseudomonas, were sprayed on test fields of strawberry plants in Monterey County, Calif., to increase their resistance to frost.
In nature, Pseudomonas can be found on the surface of many plants. The bacteria contribute to problems with frost on crops because they produce a protein that promotes the formation of ice. In hopes of reducing frost damage to crops, scientist Steve Lindow at the University of California altered the bacteria to stop producing this protein. The University patented these “ice-minus” bacteria and licensed the technology to Advanced Genetic Systems, a company based in Oakland, Calif. AGS hoped to bring the bacteria to market as an ice-proofing spray for crops called “Frostban.”
After careful review, the U.S. government approved field tests of Frostban. Despite the review, public fear of releasing these bacteria into the environment remained. Some scientists raised concerns that the ice-minus bacteria could replace the natural bacterial population. Because of their ice-forming abilities, the natural bacteria play a role in the creation of precipitation. This fact led some to worry that damage to the natural population could have repercussions for rainfall and weather patterns.
Activists against Frostban broke into test fields and uprooted plants to be sprayed several times throughout the field trials. After four years of tests, Frostban was found to be effective in reducing frost damage to crops. Due to continued public discomfort with genetically modified organisms, however, AGS never marketed the product. The company feared that the expense of fighting legal battles to get it to market would outweigh possible profit.
Sources:
“Public Fears Factored Into Gene-Altered Bacteria Tests.” Griffin, Katherine. The Los Angeles Times. April 18, 1988. p. AOC11.
“Bacteria on the Loose.” Fox, Michael W. The Washington Post. November 26, 1985. p. A16.
“Chapter 5: Ecological Considerations.” Office of Technology Assessment, Congress of the United States. Field-Testing Engineered Organisms: Genetic and Ecological Issues. 2002. pp.94–95.
“Chapter 4: The Release of a Genetically Engineered Microorganism.” Schacter, Bernice Zeldin. Issues and Dilemmas of Biotechnology: A Reference Guide. 1999.
The outbreak of World War II led to considerable strain among American workers as many left for war-related jobs. Some organizations, such the United States Employment Service for New York State, planned to do an audit of the training needed by employees. This typescript describes the plan.
Units of military and police organizations often have numbers in their names. This sheet music presents the theme song for the television program "Hawaii Five-O." "Five-0" was a fictional police force in Hawaii, the fiftieth state. The music is by Mort Stevens and was recorded by a group called The Ventures.
This object is a 300 mL Erlenmeyer flask made of Pyrex glass. The Erlenmeyer flask is named for Emil Erlenmeyer (1825–1909), a German organic chemist who designed the flask in 1861. The flask is often used for stirring or heating solutions and is purposefully designed to be useful for those tasks. The narrow top allows it to be stoppered, the sloping sides prevent liquids from slopping out when stirred, and the flat bottom can be placed on a heating mechanism or apparatus.
Pyrex has its origins in the early 1910s, when American glass company Corning Glass Works began looking for new products to feature its borosilicate glass, Nonex. At the suggestion of Bessie Littleton, a Corning scientist’s wife, the company began investigating Nonex for bakeware. After removing lead from Nonex to make the glass safe for cooking, they named the new formula “Pyrex”—“Py” for the pie plate, the first Pyrex product. In 1916 Pyrex found another market in the laboratory. It quickly became a favorite brand in the scientific community for its strength against chemicals, thermal shock, and mechanical stress.
This object is part of a collection donated by Barbara Keppel, wife of C. Robert Keppel. Robert Keppel taught at the University of Nebraska-Omaha after receiving his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from M.I.T. The glassware in the Keppel collection covers the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Sources:
Dyer, Davis. The Generations of Corning: The Life and Times of a Global Corporation. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Jensen, William B. “The Origin of Pyrex.” Journal of Chemical Education 83, no. 5 (2006): 692. doi:10.1021/ed083p692.
Kraissl, F. “A History of the Chemical Apparatus Industry.” Journal of Chemical Education 10, no. 9 (1933): 519. doi:10.1021/ed010p519.
National Museum of American History Accession File #1985.0311
Ridley, John. Essentials of Clinical Laboratory Science. Cengage Learning, 2010.
Sella, Andrea. “Classic Kit: Erlenmeyer Flask,” July 2008. http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issues/2008/July/ErlenmeyerFlask.asp.
“University of Nebraska Omaha.” 2015. Accessed May 4. http://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-arts-and-sciences/chemistry/student-opportunities/scholarships.php.
