Foregger Texas Model

WLMD ID: amvf

The Foregger Company of New York made a wide range of anesthesia equipment, from masks and airways to some of the largest machines made in the era before computerization. One of the keys to its success was the extent to which the company worked one-on-one with its customers to create new designs.  In the 1930s Foregger built the first of its Texas Models for Dr. L. W. Kuser of Gainesville, Texas.  That design incorporated a cart that could hold large cylinders of compressed gas.

Shown here is an example of the next model, originally built for Dr. C. William Hoeflich, of Houston, Texas, and commercially introduced around 1938. It is equipped with Foregger’s closed-circuit CF2 Absorber, which was introduced in 1942. The Texas Model was produced in many configurations over the next twenty years; there were seven variations of the Texas Model in Foregger’s 1959 catalog!  The Texas Model was the heart of Foregger’s Experimental Rotameter machine, which introduced the Copper Kettle Vaporizer in 1952.  Foregger offered a compact version of the Texas, called the Texette Model, in 1960.

Catalog Record: Foregger Texas Model

Access Key: amvf

Accession No.: 1972-03-02-1 B

Title: [Texas model] / Foregger.

Author: Hoeflich, Carl William, 1881-1957.

Corporate Author: Foregger Company.

Title variation: Alt Title
Title: Foregger Texas model machine.

Title variation: Alt Title
Title: Foregger aquamatic Texas model.

Publisher: [New York] : Foregger, [between 1938 and 1945?].

Physical Descript: 1 anesthesia machine : metals, rubber, glass, paint ; 123 x 72 x 71 cm.

Subject: Anesthesia Machines.
Subject: Anesthesia, Inhalation – instrumentation.
Subject: Ether, Ethyl.
Subject: Cyclopropane.
Subject: Helium.

Note Type: General
Notes: The early year in the date range for the possible year of manufacture of this
machine is an estimate based on an undated Foregger catalog in which the
machine appears. The donor of the catalog, called “The Metric Gas Machine:
CO2 Absorption”, compared it to other Foregger catalogs and estimated the
date to be 1928 or 1939. The first dated catalog in which the Texas Model
appears in is the 1942 Foregger catalog, titled, “Catalog, No. 8”. The end
year in the date range is based on the year of the last Foregger catalog to
incudes the Double Canister Circle Filter-CF No. 2 with the same design as
the one on this machine (the 1955, number 12 catalog). The date range could
change if documentation or expert opinion indicate the range should be
corrected.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Adriani J. Inhalation anesthesia. In: Techniques and Procedures of Anesthesia
Springfield, Illinois: Charles C Thomas; 1947:40-41. [Contains a description
and illustration of Dr. Adriani’s “Circle Filter.”]

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Catalog No. 7. Roslyn, New York: The Foregger Company, Inc.; 1937. [Texas
Model not in 1937 catalog.]

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Catalog No. 8. New York: The Foregger Company, Inc.; 1942:14-15, 56. [The
Texas Model is discussed on pages 14 and 15. The Double Canister Circle
Filter-CF No. 2 is pictured on page 56.]

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Catalog No. 11. Foregger Company, Inc.: Roslyn, N.Y.; 1952:56-57. [A diagram
of the Double Canister Circle Filter-CF No. 2 is pictured on page 57.]

Note Type: Not Applicable
Notes: Catalog No. 12. Foregger Company, Inc.: Roslyn, N.Y.; 1955:56. [The Double
Canister Circle Filter-CF No. 2 illustrated in this catalog has the tilted,
rather than upright, fludder valves.]

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Catalog No. 14. Foregger Company, Inc.: Roslyn, N.Y.; 1956:59. [The fludder
valves on the Double Canister Circle Filter-CF No. 2 illustrated in this
catalog are upright. This continues to be true for the Foregger catalogs that
include this device published after 1956.]

Note Type: Citation
Notes: The cover this month. Am Soc Anesthesiologists Newsl. 1957;21(2):2. [A short
bio of Dr. Carl William Hoeflich.].

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Hoeflich CW. Anesthesia—then and now. Anesth Analg. 1933;12(3)89.

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Metric Gas Machine [catalog]. New York: The Foregger Company, Inc.;
[1938-1939?]:12. [This catalog was not dated when published. Page 14 mentions
the Texas, Montreal ad Waters cabinet style machines.]

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Ramsay MAE. Anesthesia and pain management at Baylor University Medical
Center. BUMC Proc. 2000;13:155. [The following is written on page 155, “The
Texas Society of Medical Anaesthetists was organized in 1939, with Dr. Carl
Hoeflich as president.”]

Note Type: Citation
Notes: Thomas MA. Anesthesiology—the John Adriani story. Ochsner J. 2011;11(1):5-9.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3096164/. Accessed November 23,
2015.

Note Type: Physical Description
Notes: One anesthesia machine with a table top and four legs on wheels; This
description is based on the perspective of a user facing the front of the
device, i.e. “left” is the user’s left, “right” is the user’s right; Below
the table top is a handle for moving the machine and then four drawers
situated vertically; “FOREGGER” is printed at the bottom of the front of the
machine, just under the fourth drawer; On each side of the table top are
three knobs for adjusting the flowrate of gases; On the left, from front to
back, are two knobs for oxygen (labeled O2) and one for carbon dioxide
(labeled CO2); Three yokes for gas cylinders are located on the left side of
the machine, just below the table top; Each yoke is marked with, “U.S. PATENT
[new line] October 24 1922″; On the right side of the table top , from front
to back, is a knob for nitrous oxide (labeled N2O), one for helium (labeled
HE), and one for cyclopropane (labeled C3H6); Three yokes for gas cylinders
are located on the right side of the machine, just below the table top; Two
ether vaporizer bottles are located on the left side of the machine in front
of the yokes; One, appears to be a wick-type vaporizer not found by this
cataloger in the Foregger catalogs; The other (the one closest to the front)
appears to be a common Foregger vaporizer referred to as an “ether
attachment”; Each vaporizer is connected to the tabletop by ‘ether pass’
valves; These valves can be turned to the word “PASS” or the word “ETHER”;
They are also stamped with the word, “FOREGGER”; At the back of the table-top
is a Foregger “outside flowmeter”; These later these were called “Aquameters”
by the company; From left to right the flowmeter scales are “CO2”, “O2”
(fine), “O2” (course), “C3H6”, “HE”, and N2O”; The water for the CO2, fine O2
and N2O flowmeters is clear; The water for the course O2 is tinted green;
The water for the C3H6 is tinted red; The water for HE is tinted black; A
metal plate is affixed to the top of the tabletop just to the left of the
flowmeter bank; It is marked with the following: “SERIAL # ATTENTION 8456
[new line] AT START [new line] DO NOT OPEN CYLINDER VALVE UNLESS CERTAIN
THAT THE CONTROL VALVE IS CLOSED. WATCH THE FLOW-METER WHEN OPENING THE
CYLINDER VALVE. [new line] AT END [new line] DO NOT DEPEND ON THE CONTROL
VALVE FOR COMPLETE SHUTTING –OFF. TURN THE CONTROL VALVE PIN UNTIL THE
MENISCUS REACHES WATER LEVEL. USE CYLINDER VALE FOR TIGHT SUCH-OFF. [new
line] THE FOREGGER COMPANY, INC.”; Extending from the left side of the
machine is a Double Canister Circle Filter-CF No. 2; The text, “FOREGGER” is
stamped into the face of the selector valve; The exhalation flutter valve is
missing; The inhalation flutter valve is situated at an angle, like the
Double Canister Circle Filter-CF No. 2s pictured in the Foregger catalogs
from 1942 to 1955; The glass ether cup is amber in color and marked with
graduation lines from 10 to 80; The lines are numbered ever ten increments
between 10 and 80, however there are increment lines between the numbered
lines (i.e., at 15, 25, 35, etc.); Both of the absorber canisters are filled
with absorbent; On the back of one of the absorber canisters is a piece of
cloth tape marked, “FRESH [new line] 2-24”; A sticker affixed to the right
side of the machine is marked with the following, “PROPERTY OF [new line]
COOK COUNTY HOSPITAL [new line] COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS [new line] NO. 122854;
The white or eggshell paint on the legs and drawers has numerous stains and
chips.

Note Type: Reproduction
Notes: Photographed by Mr. Steve Donisch, June 8, 2015.

Note Type: Exhibition
Notes: Selected for the WLM website (noted November 17, 2015).