Oxford Vaporiser anaesthesia apparatus, complete, in black Bakelite case
Inscription
THIS SIDE UP/ WITH CARE | SEE INSTRUCTIONS/ INSIDE LID [IMPORTANT HANDLING AND OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS, AND MANUFACTURER'S DETAILS] OXFORD VAPORIZER
Production date
1946
Production organisations
MORRIS MOTORS LTD.
Labels
The Oxford Vaporiser was developed during the Second World War to provide a more portable and controlled way to deliver anaesthetic during conflicts. It was the first to offer control over the concentration of anaesthetic vapour (ether was preferred), to deliver vapour at a constant temperature, and to assist respiration manually, in one machine. It was produced by Morris Motors and over 4,000 were delivered to military and civilian hospitals by the end of the war.
Morris Motors was founded by William Morris, the First Viscount Nuffield. Morris became a self-made millionaire through mass car manufacturing. Today he is often remembered for his contribution to Oxford’s industrialisation and his medical philanthropy, including pledging an Iron Lung to any hospital in England and its colonies that asked.
He is less remembered or held accountable for his significant financing of Oswald Mosley’s fascist New Party and antisemitic newspaper Action between 1930 and 1932, donating £50,000 to the party and £35,000 to the paper. Despite his later attempts to distance himself from Mosley through a donation to German Jewish Refugees, Morris’s antisemitism should not be so easily forgotten.
Lucy Cameron, Hidden Histories MA Project Researcher
