On Oct. 12, 1928, the first iron lung was used at Boston Children’s Hospital by Harvard Medical School faculty members Philip Drinker and Louis Agassiz Shaw to aid respiration to preserve breathing function in patients with acute polio.

This early respirator for producing artificial respiration over long periods of time was designed and constructed by the donor, John Haven Emerson. Completed in July 1931, it was first used in the summer of that year at the Providence City Hospital, Providence, R.I.

Iron lungs saved the lives of polio patients, mostly children, who weren’t able to breathe on their own as a result of the disease. The device operated similarly to a vacuum where a motor would create and release pressure around the body to force air in and out of the lungs while the patient’s head rested outside of the machine, sealed off by an airtight collar.