Foregger Texas Aquameter

Catalog Record: Foregger Texas Aquameter Foregger Texas

Access Key: aqkq

Accession No.: 1963-10-24-1

Title: Texas Model / Foregger.

Corporate Author: Foregger Company.

Title variation: Alt Title
Title: Foregger Aquameter anesthesia machine.

Publisher: Roslyn Heights, NY : Foregger Company, [between 1952 and 1961].

Physical Description: 1 anesthesia machine : metals, glass, plastics, rubber ; 124 x 62.5 x 79 cm.

Subject: Anesthesia Machines.
Subject: Anesthesia, Inhalation – instrumentation.
Subject: Nitrous Oxide.
Subject: Oxygen.
Subject: Cyclopropane.

Note Type: General
Notes: Machines equipped with the Aquameter flowmeters were being made by 1942. The first year in the date range is based on the presence of an integrated vaporizing system, introduced in 1952, which could not have been retrofitted on an older machine. The second year in the date range is the year that Foregger introduced oxygen flush valves of a different design.

The machine is described from the perspective of the operator, with the flowmeter bank facing forward.

Note Type: General
Notes: The oxygen flush valve on this machine was separately cataloged and photographed in 2016 (see Library Sydney Key amwk).

Married to gas cylinders from the parts collection for purposes of photography.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: American Society of Anesthesiologists Archives, Membership Series. Located at: Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, Schaumburg, Illinois.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: California Death Index, 1940-1997 website. https://familysearch.org/search/collection/results?count=20&query=%2Bgivenname%3A%22william%20h%22~%20%2Bsurname%3Acassells~%20%2Bdeath_place%3A%22san%20mateo%2C%20CA%22~&collection_id=2015582. Accessed June 5, 2017.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Dornette WHL, Brechner VL. Instrumentation in Anesthesiology. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1959.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: The Foregger Company. Catalog 1935. New York: The Foregger Company, 1935.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: The Foregger Company. Catalog No. 7. New York: The Foregger Company, Inc., ca. 1937.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: The Foregger Company. The Metric Gas Machine. New York: The Foregger Company, ca. 1938-1939.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: The Foregger Company. Catalog No. 8. New York: The Foregger Company, 1942.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: The Foregger Company. Catalog No. 9. New York: The Foregger Company, 1949.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: The Foregger Company. Catalog No. 10. New York, NY: The Foregger Company; 1952.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: The Foregger Company. Catalog 12. Roslyn Heights, NY: Foregger Company, 1955.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: The Foregger Company. Catalog 16: Foregger Apparatus for Anesthesia Oxygen and Extracorporeal Circulation. Rosyln Heights, Long island, New York: The Foregger Company, 1960.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: The Foregger Company. Catalog 17: Anesthesia Apparatus. Rosyln Heights, Long island, New York: The Foregger Company, 1962.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Lyons SS. The adaptation of continuous nitrous oxide to the ‘to and fro’ carbon dioxide absorption technic. Anesthesiology. May, 1941;2(3):321-325.

Note Type: Physical Description
Notes: One anesthesia machine; The cabinet and five drawers are enameled blue; The cabinet is mounted on four rubber wheels; A lock on the back of the cabinet controls an interior mechanism that could lock the drawers; The drawers are unlocked, and the key has not been found;

The stainless-steel tabletop is engraved in the right front corner: “TEXAS MODEL [new line] FOREGGER [new line] METRIC”; A metal label plate is affixed to the rear right corner of the tabletop; This reads: “ATTENTION [new line] BEFORE OPENING THE CYLINDER VALVE, MAKE SURE THE [new line] CONTROL VALVE IS CLOSED. WATCH THE FLOWMETER [new line] WHILE CAREFULLY OPENING THE CYLINDER VALVE. [new line] WHEN FLUSHING, USE CYLINDER VALVE FOR COMPLETE [new line] SHUT OFF. CLOSE THE CONTROL VALVE GENTLY. [new line] AQUAMETER MODEL [new line] SERIAL NO. 10347 [new line] THE FOREGGER CO. INC. [new line] 55 WEST 42 STREET, NEW YORK 13 N. Y.”; A second label is affixed adjacent to the first: this reads” 35978″;

The left rear corner of the tabletop was formerly occupied by 400 cubic-centimeter Copper Kettle Vaporizer; This vaporizer has been removed, leaving the connecting tubes dangling below the tabletop;

An oxygen flush component is mounted on the left front corner of the machine, with the control knob on the tabletop; This knob is labeled: “KETTLE [new line] KETTLE OFF [new line] FLUSH”;

The tabletop has openings on the right side for three cylinder hubs, and openings on the left side for two cylinder hubs; There are three cylinder yokes below the tabletop on the left side of the machine; These have three associated control knobs; Two of these knobs are color-coded with a green insert, while that knob nearest the front is color coded green with a red dot in the center; A bracket that can hold three cylinders is mounted on the right wall of the cabinet, below the yokes;

There are three cylinder yokes below the tabletop on the right side of the machine, but only two of these were intended for use on this machine; The yoke nearer the back has a control knob that is colored orange; The yoke in the center has a control knob colored green; The space that would be occupied by a knob is sealed off; A bracket that can hold two tanks is mounted on the left wall of the cabinet, below the yokes;

A bank of five flowmeters is mounted near the back edge of the tabletop; The tube on the far left is labeled, from top to bottom: “O2 [new line] ETHER [new line] ONLY [leftward arrow] [new line] 20, 40, 60, 80, 90, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000”; The second tube is labeled, from top to bottom: “O2 [new line] CC [leftward arrow] 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700”; The third tube is labeled, from top to bottom: “O2 [new line] LT [downward arrow] [new line] 500, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5”; The fourth tube is labeled, from top to bottom: “C3H6 [new line] CC [leftward arrow] [new line] 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800”; The tube on the far right is labeled, from top to bottom: “N2O [new line] LT [leftward arrow] [new line] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8”; Behind this row of tubes an instruction label reads: “WATER LINE”;

Affixed to the left side of the flowmeter bank is a blood pressure manometer made by Becton Dickinson; This is marked, from top to bottom: “60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 2, 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 1, 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20”.

Despite the flowmeter, this unit lacks any point of attachment for an ether vaporizer. An opening in the tabletop, and a surrounding discoloration, show that a 400 cubic centimeter Copper Kettle Vaporizer was formerly attached to this machine. Also lacks a carbon dioxide absorber.

Note Type: Reproduction
Notes: Photographed by Mr. Steve Donisch, June 20, 2017.

Note Type: Acquisition
Notes: Gift of an anonymous donor.

Note Type: Historical
Notes: The Foregger Company of New York produced a wide range of anesthesia equipment over a span of five decades. The cataloged object is a Foregger Texas Model anesthesia machine equipped an ether vaporizer, a carbon dioxide absorber, the Copper Kettle vaporizing system and a bank of five Aquameter flowmeters (one each for ether, nitrous oxide and cyclopropane, and two for oxygen.) The Texas cabinet model was available from 1942 through 1962.

Foregger produced four types of flowmeters, some of them available concurrently. Each flowmeter registered the rate of the agent flowing from a specific vaporizer or cylinder of compressed gas. Foregger’s water-filled “metric” flowmeters appeared in its catalogs through number 7, issued in 1935. The next generation of wet flowmeters appeared in catalogs dating from the late 1930s through 1960. Dry, rotameter flowmeters appeared in catalogs dating from 1949 through 1962, and dry, ball-type flowmeters appeared in catalogs dating from 1958 through 1962.

Foregger introduced its second wet flowmeter design in an unnumbered catalog, tentatively dated 1938-1939. In that catalog the new design is called a “hydraulic flowmeter”, calibrated in increments of ten cubic centimeters. In catalog number 8, issued in 1942, it is called both an “outside flowmeter” and a “Cassels-type 10 cc flowmeter”. William Henderson Cassels, M.D. (1901-1970) was a resident under Ralph M. Waters, M.D. (1883-1979), at the University of Wisconsin. The cataloger was unable to find any other publications that link Dr. Cassels to flowmeter design. This flowmeter is renamed “The Aquameter” in the Foregger catalogs numbered 9 through 16 (dated 1949 through 1960.) It does not appear in Foregger’s last full catalog, number 17, issued in 1962. The Aquameter was extremely accurate so long as the water level was constant and the gas inlets were kept clear. Obstructions and/or variations in water level could cause changes in pressure and great inaccuracies.

According to the accession record, the cataloged object is equipped with a “Lyons box”. Described in 1941 by Sydney Steven Lyons, M.D. (born 1899), this feature isolated one of the two oxygen flowmeters from the carbon dioxide absorption system, and routed the gas from that cylinder only through the ether vaporizer. It was only available with the Aquameter flowmeters.

The cataloged object was originally equipped with a large (400 cubic centimeter) Copper Kettle Vaporizer; this vaporizer has since been removed. First introduced with the Experimental Rotameter Model in 1952, the Copper Kettle was available on the Texas and many other Foregger models from 1955 through 1962. An oxygen flush valve was an integral part of the Copper Kettle vaporizing system; this component remains connected to the machine. Oxygen flush valves of this design appear in Foregger’s catalogs from 1952 through 1960. A different design was introduced in Foregger’s 1962 catalog.

Note Type: Exhibition
Notes: Selected for the WLM website.