This blown-in-mold bottle was typical of the singly flat-sided flasks mass-produced for storing and dropping chloroform. That anesthetic’s potency ensured that a relatively small bottle could deliver an anesthetic of short to medium duration. Imitating the Esmarch Chloroform Kit, many practitioners carried dropper bottles inside concave wireframe masks. The amber coloring of the glass was believed to slow light degradation of chloroform. Topped here by the American-designed Wachter Chloroform Dropper (patent Figure 1, left), this “HANSGEN”-embossed bottle (right) shared the granular mold markings and air inclusions that frequently contributed to the shattering of these thin-walled bottles. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc.)
This blown-in-mold bottle was typical of the singly flat-sided flasks mass-produced for storing and dropping chloroform. That anesthetic’s potency ensured that a relatively small bottle could deliver an anesthetic of short to medium duration. Imitating the Esmarch Chloroform Kit, many practitioners carried dropper bottles inside concave wireframe masks. The amber coloring of the glass was believed to slow light degradation of chloroform. Topped here by the American-designed Wachter Chloroform Dropper (patent Figure 1, left), this “HANSGEN”-embossed bottle (right) shared the granular mold markings and air inclusions that frequently contributed to the shattering of these thin-walled bottles. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc.)
George S. Bause, M.D., M.P.H., Honorary Curator, ASA’s Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, Park Ridge, Illinois, and Clinical Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. UJYC@aol.com.
