Inflating organs using a pneumatic engine and plaster of Paris
Date
7 May 1684
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p138
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 375mm
width (page): 238mm
width (page): 238mm
Subject
Content object
Description
A figure of the device used in an experiment which followed the one performed by Denis Papin on 30 April 1684 (RBO/6/178), where he hoped to inflate an organ for dissection by using a pneumatic engine, but the organ collapsed on readmission of air into the chamber. On this occasion, 7 May, Papin injected plaster of Paris into an organ but not the blood vessels, the latter of which shrunk after air was let into the chamber.
This image was copied from RBO/6/180.
This image was copied from RBO/6/180.
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 30 April 1684, ‘Dr. Papin finding, that the lungs of a rabbit sunk upon the readmission of air in the exhausting engine, proposed, that they might be filled with plaister of Paris, wax, etc. or else be left in vacuo to dry’ (Birch 4:292).
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 7 May 1684, ‘In the experiment made by Dr. Papin, the plaister of Paris was driven as low as needed to be into the wind-vessels; but upon the intermission of the air into the receiver, all the other vessels shrunk; so that it seemed, that the veins and arteries too should be filled one after another with different compositions, that in dissecting they might be distinguished’ (Birch 4:296).
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 7 May 1684, ‘In the experiment made by Dr. Papin, the plaister of Paris was driven as low as needed to be into the wind-vessels; but upon the intermission of the air into the receiver, all the other vessels shrunk; so that it seemed, that the veins and arteries too should be filled one after another with different compositions, that in dissecting they might be distinguished’ (Birch 4:296).
Related fellows
Denis Papin (1647, French) , Natural philosopher
Associated place