Stephenson CRU

WLMD ID: apoo

Mechanical ventilation has been a part of inhalation anesthesia since the 1940s. American engineer Monroe Harry Goodner (1898-1962), of Glendale, California, patented a resuscitator in 1928. It was the first of many devices that he was to invent over the next four decades. He assigned two of his patents to Stephenson Corporation in 1947. This company, located in Red Bank, New Jersey, made resuscitators, respirators and other equipment from the 1940s through the 1960s. By 1952, Mr. Goodner had moved to Red Bank to become the firm's Research and Development Director.

Stephenson's Controlled Respiration Unit (or "CRU"), invented by Mr. Goodner, was introduced in 1955. It was a volume-controlled, pressure-limited ventilator. In its automatic mode, the CRU could be connected to an anesthesia machine, and used either with or without a carbon dioxide absorber. By adding an attachment, called the Assisted Respiration Unit, the CRU could be used manually to provide respiratory therapy. The example shown here does not have this attachment.

Catalog Record: Stephenson Controlled Respiration Unit Stephenson CRU

Access Key: apoo

Accession No.: 1977-02-28-1 B

Title: Stephenson Controlled Respiration Unit / Stephenson Corporation ; Monroe Harry Goodner, inventor.

Corporate Author: Stephenson Corporation.

Title variation: Alt Title
Title: Stephenson Assisted and Controlled Respiration Unit.

Title variation: Not Applicable
Title: Stephenson C. R. U.

Publisher: Red Bank, New Jersey : Stephenson Corporation, [between 1955 and 1977].

Physical Description: 1 respirator : metals, rubber and/or plastics ; 56 x 30.5 xx 37 cm.

Subject: Respiration, Artificial – instrumentation.
Subject: Respiratory Therapy – instrumentation.
Subject: Ventilators, Mechanical.

Note Type: General
Notes: The first year in the date range is based on the earliest description found by the cataloger. That publication is a flier announcing the Controlled Respiration Unit as the manufacturer’s “latest” model. Although the flier is not dated, it states that the device will be exhibited at the Annual meeting of the American Hospital Association (AHA), in Atlantic City, and the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) in Boston. Both these meetings were held in 1955. The previous AHA meeting to be held in Atlantic City took place in 1950. There was no previous ASA meeting held in Boston, and no others took place there until 1972.

The second year in the date range is based on the date that the object was acquired by WLM. The actual last year of manufacture is likely to have been as much as a decade earlier.

Described from the perspective of the user, with the controls in front.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: American Hospital Association Archives. Located at: American Hospital Association Resource Center, Chicago, Illinois.

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

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Goodner MH, inventor; C. N. Erickson, assignee. Resuscitator and the like. US patent 1,893,670. January 10, 1933.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Goodner MH, inventor; Stephenson Corp., assignee. Resuscitator. US patent 2,547,458. April 3, 1951.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Goodner MH, inventor; Stephenson Corp., assignee. Double bellows controlled respiration unit. US patent 2,924,215. February 9, 1960.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Goodner MH, inventor; Stephenson Corp., assignee. Apparatus for selectively providing controlled breathing or assisted breathing. US patent 3,057,346. October 9, 1962.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Hewer CL. Recent Advances in Anaesthesia and Analgesia, 9th ed. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1963:266 and 282.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Mushin WWL, Rendell-Baker L, Thompson PW, Mapleson WW. Automatic Ventilation of the Lungs, Second Edition. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1969:208 and 729-734.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Mushin WWL, Rendell-Baker L, Thompson PW, Mapleson WW. Automatic Ventilation of the Lungs, 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1980:787-792.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Safar P, ed. Respiratory Therapy. Philadelphia: F. A. Davis Company, 1965:106-107.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Stephenson Company File. Archives. Located at: Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, Schaumburg, Illinois.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Trademarkia website. http://www.trademarkia.com/stephenson-stephenson-corporation-red-bank-nj-usa-71696265.html. Accessed May16, 2017.

Note Type: Physical Description
Notes: One respirator; Consists of two bellows, one set above the other; The lower bellows is fixed to a metal base and frame, and flanked by a cylinder on either side; The bellows is held in the fully extended position; At the top of this bellows a platform and frame are fixed to the two cylinders; This upper frame holds the upper bellows; Both of these bellows are made of blue rubber or vinyl, and are approximately 15.5 centimeters in diameter; Both the upper base and lower platform are coated with a blue enamel;

A metal label plate on the front side of the lower base of the unit reads: “STEPHENSON CONTROLLED
RESPIRATION UNIT [new line] MODEL 1600 [new line] SERIAL NO. 125 [new line] STEPHENSON CORPORATION RED BANK, NEW JERSEY, U. S. A.”; An ownership label on the top side of the base, near the front edge, reads: “PROPERTY OF [new line] UNIV. OF NORTH CAROLINA [new line] 43587”;

Each horizontal scale beam bears a weight that can be moved from side to side; The beam on the left is marked, from left to right: “25, 20, 15, 10, 5 [new line] MM MERCURY POSITIVE PRESSURE”; The beam on the right is marked, from left to right, “5, 10, 15 [new line] MM MERCURY NEGATIVE PRESSURE”;; Each beam is held in place by a bracket, and has a range of motion, up and down, of up to 2.5 centimeters; Each of these brackets also holds a pop-up pressure-relief valve;

An exhaust control knob is mounted on the front of the upper platform, below the negative pressure scale is marked (clockwise): “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0”; A vertical volume scale is mounted in front of the lower bellows; The bottom of the scale is mounted on the lower base, and the top of the scale is mounted on the upper platform; The vertical scale reads, from top to bottom: “1.8, 1.6, 1.4, 1.2, 1.0, .8, .6, .4 , .2, LITERS”; A control knob mounted above the center scale is marked (from left to right): “OFF ON”;

There are three dials in a horizontal row at the foot of the center scale; Each is marked, from left to right: “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0”; A metal label plate on the top side of the base, directly below these dials, identifies the purpose of each dial; This reads, from left to right: “[left-pointing arrow] INHALATION SPEED 1 [new line] [upward-pointing arrow] EXHALATION SPEED 2 [new line] [Right-pointing arrow] EXHALATION PAUSE 3”;

A curved connector is built into the upper platform; This connector is threaded, and has a diameter of approximately 2.5 centimeters; An extension tube, with a diameter of approximately 2 centimeters, is held in place by a nut; This connector would be the point of attachment either to an anesthesia machine, or to an Assisted Respiration Unit;

The bottom of the lower base bears the raised number: “1606”; The remainder of a black rubber power cord is attached to the base of the unit, and extends beyond it; The cord has become stiff; Without the cord, the width and depth of the unit are both approximately 25.5 centimeters.

Note Type: Reproduction
Notes: Photographed by Mr. Steve Donisch, November 14 and 15, 2016.

Note Type: Acquisition
Notes: Gift of the University of North Carolina.

Note Type: Historical
Notes: Stephenson Corporation, of Red Bank, New Jersey, made respirators, resuscitators, breathalyzers and other scientific equipment. The earliest reference to the company found by the cataloger is a patent for a resuscitator filed in June, 1947. This and several other patents were assigned to the company by the inventor, M. H. Goodner. The latest reference to the company found by the cataloger is dated 1980. The company’s trademark was registered in 1955, and expired in 1997.

Mr. Monroe Harry Goodner was born in Colorado on June 1, 1898. By 1920, his family had moved to Glendale, California, where he worked as a mechanical engineer. Two patents for resuscitators that he filed in 1947, and assigned to Stephenson, give his residence at that date as Glendale, CA. By 1952, he had moved to Red Bank, New Jersey, where he lived until his death in August, 1962. An advertising flier issued in 1955 notes that he was Stephenson’s “Research and Development Director”. This publication also states: “Mr. Goodner, thirty years ago, invented America’s first automatic pressure-controlled breathing machine.” (This may refer to the patent for another resuscitator that he filed in 1928.) The flier adds the extravagant claim: “He has made more original contributions to the field of mechanical breathing than any other engineer.”

The same 1955 flier introduces Stephenson’s Controlled Respiration Unit (also called the C. R. U.) as the company’s “latest model”. Two patents specifically pertaining to the C. R. U. were filed by Mr. Goodner in 1958, and assigned to the company; these were granted in 1960 and 1962, respectively. Safar, Mushin and others identify the apparatus as a volume-controlled, pressure-limited ventilator. It had both automatic and manual modes. In automatic mode, the C. R. U. could be connected to an anesthesia machine, with or without carbon dioxide absorption. By adding an attachment, called the Assisted Respiration Unit, it could be used manually to provide respiratory therapy. The cataloged object does not have this attachment.

Mushin et al. describe the C. R. U. in their second edition, 1969, and third edition, 1980. The third edition states that the apparatus was “also called Loosco Crusador”. Founded around 1915, G. L. Loos & Co., of Amsterdam, the Netherlands (brand name “Loosco”), is known to have made anesthesia machines, blood pressure apparatus and ventilators from the 1950s through the 1970s. The cataloger was unable to determine whether Loos distributed Stephenson’s product, or had rights to produce it under the Loosco brand.

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