A Design for the First Defibrillator.

This drawing originally appeared in Charles Kite's An Essay on the
Recovery of the Apparently Dead
(London, 1788). The Bakken Library and Museum website describes the device and the theory (and practice!) behind it:

An electrostatic generator charges a Leyden jar capacitor, which can discharge its accumulated electrical energy through the electrodes below. Energy willbuild up until the voltage is high enough to jump the spark gap ab.

In 1788 Charles Kite, a member of the Royal Humane Society of London (an organization devoted to salvaging persons seemingly dead) described the use of electricity to revive a three-year-old child who was taken for dead after falling out of a window.

An "apothecary" was sent for, who could do nothing; then electrical resuscitation was attempted by a Mr. Squires, who

with the consent of the parents, very humanely tried the effects of electricity. Twenty minutes had at least elapsed before he could apply the shock, which he gave to various parts of the body without any apparent success; but at length, on transmitting a few shocks through the thorax, he perceived a small pulsation; soon after the child began to breathe, though with great difficulty. In about ten minutes she vomited. A kind of stupor remained for some days; but the child was restored to perfect health and spirits in about a week.

Kite comments:


Do [these examples] not plainly point out, that electricity is the most powerful stimulus we can apply? ... And are we
not justified in assuming, that if it is able so powerfully to excite the action of the external muscles, that it will be capable of reproducing the motion of the heart, which is infinitely more irritable, and by that means accomplish our great desideratum, the renewal of the circulation?

There is some dispute among modern medical historians as to whether the child's heart had really stopped before the electricity was applied, but the intention was certainly to defibrillate her, and that is what Kite and others clearly believed Squires had done.


Comments (3)

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Newest 3 Comments

That would be great wouldn't it? Bringing back Kite's invention for wilderness survival use. Obviously the Leyden jar wouldn't work too well in a backpack, but there are better battery packs available now -- ones that aren't made of glass.
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This design is actually far ahead of modern defibrilators. There are currently no hand cranked models on the market. These could be useful during extended wilderness expiditions or power failures due to the collapse of civilization. Imagine the effect if the early missionaries could resurrect the dead king of a primitive tribe in the wilds of borneo!
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The human thirst for knowledge only extends to a length inversely proportionate to his/her will to ignorance, which generally extends a lot further. The Will to Ignorance is more palatable than the Will to Knowledge because of it's social value.
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I somewhat agree Ryan, but I think it depends on whether or not a person places value on knowledge above other equally as valuable things, like love or money. I think his point was that if you're curious for knowledge, the best way to live and learn is to admit lack of knowledge. You approach changing truths and discover new knowledge more fervently than if you thought you "knew," particularly if you come from the viewpoint that science in its entirety is not proven and everything is completely theoretical, which might be where his commitments to "lack of purpose" and truth came from. Vaclav Havel said something relevant: "Keep the company of those who seek the truth--run from those who have found it." Therefore, to admit ignorance is knowledge. I think Feynman probably could care less about whether or not he was socially palatable, especially considering his public disdain for the social workings of the National Academy of Sciences. Sorry if I'm being a little abstract here. You brought up a good point to think about.
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I liked his line about one little aspect of God coming to Earth and look what it’s created…. Like our views of God are the surface views of the flower and to expand beyond that (the flower to all its aspects vs. the Earth compared to the complexity of the universe)

In one stroke he doubts God, but then expands the beauty of God to the universe… and states that our beliefs are as limiting to Gods true beauty as limiting our understanding of the flower to only its surface “one centimeter”

There’s a helluva lot in that one little video…
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