ECG and 'iron lung' for polio among special 1930s medical advances by inventor Ted Both in Adelaide laboratory
Adelaide inventor Ted Both with his electrocardiograph (ECG), and, at right, a Both respirator cabinet being used to treat a patient at the 110th Australian military hospital in 1943
Ted Both, called the “Edison of Australia”, made remarkable contributions to medical technology from his Adelaide laboratory in the 1930s with his electrocardiograph (ECG), and “iron lung” respirator for polio patients the most prominent of many inventions in this and other fields.
In 1953, Ted’s brother Don, who worked with him, designed the Humidicrib that saved thousands of lives. The brothers together also produced x-ray equipment, nerve stimulators, foetal heart-recorders, suction units, tomographs, defibrillators, cardioscopes and blood transfusion equipment.
Ted Both, from the South Australian mid-north town of Caltowie, was educated at the local primary school and Jamestown high school and was good enough to be studying physics at Adelaide University at 16. Physics professor Kerr Grant appointed Both his personal assistant.
Grant was also impressed when Both invented his electrocardiograph, responding to his doctor’s need. Kerr had a laboratory set up near the university where Both, with his brother Don helping with the manufacturing and business, could design and produce medical equipment.
Both, soon considered “foremost among designers of intricate tools of the medical trade in South Australia”, spent four years meeting orders for his electrocardiograph that was ahead of others because it showed the heart's action instantly. The Both brothers’ product was the only commercially available direct-wiring model and produced very accurate readings.
With the outbreak of poliomyelitis in Australia in 1937, only a few iron-lung respirators devices were available and the American models were expensive and hard to maintain. The Both brothers responded with a lightweight, effective and comparatively-inexpensive respirator made of plywood (but still called an “iron lung”). The Both Respirators were soon used throughout Australia – and still used in homes into the 21st Century.
In 1938, Both was in England to sell his ECG machines when he heard a request on BBC radio for an iron lung to assist a polio sufferer. With help from the South Australian agent-general, Both set up in a hired workshop and produced a few of his “cabinets”, featured in a film by the Nuffield department of anaesthetics at Radcliffe Infirmary. The film inspired William Morris (Lord Nuffield) to build the devices at his Morris Motors factory and offer them free to meet the need of any hospital in the commonwealth.
In the years before World War II, about 1800 Both-Nuffield respirators were supplied to hospitals around the world. Both arranged for American company KNY Scheerer Corporation to produce the respirator in the USA.
Back in Australia, Both created an ultracentrifuge to isolate very fine viruses including polio. During World War II, Both continued inventing devices, including medical equipment such as the cardiograph that became standard military equipment.