Spirometer, Submarine Lung Tester, circa 1900

Submarine_Lung_tester

The point of this machine is to test your lungs. What you do is put a penny in, Grab the hose and blow until you’ve either passed out or raised all the divers. The divers raise one at a time.  Collectors of Penny Arcade machines are not certain this was ever made since no existing examples have ever been found.   From: http://www.arcadetreasures.com/arcade/Submarine_Lung_Tester.html

Spirometer, Lewis, 1865

Spirometer_Lewis_1865

Spirometer invented by Dr. Dio Lewis who advocated health through exercise.  From: Weak lungs and how to make them strong. By Dr. Dio Lewis, 1865.  Page 259.

A description of the spirometer’s mechanism comes from Dr. Charles L. Ives who wrote in the Proceedings of the Connecticut Medical Society, 1867 issue, page 192: 

“In like manner, to expand the lung by means of its contained air the spirometer of Dr. Dio Lewis proves of very great service. In this instrument, the air is blown into a very small elastic chamber, which, by its expansion, forces apart a spiral spring, whose movements are registered on a dial. As the air cannot escape from the small chamber the reaction on the lungs is equal to the force with which it is blown in. A degree of the dial is stated to mark a pressure of an ounce to the square inch, and when the pressure is raised, as with gradual practice it may be safely to four or five lbs. to the inch, a power is exerted that will the possibility of any air-vesicles remaining unexpanded, in which the epithelial debris may find lodgement.”

The diverse, quirky and mostly forgotten history of Pulmonary Function testing