In 1927, the iron lung was developed by Philip Drinker and Louis Agassiz Shaw at Harvard School of Public Health. The machine was a metal box, in which the patient rested, with bellows attached at one end to pump air in and out to maintain respiration.  Mechanical breathing apparatus were not a new invention, but the severity of the polio epidemics motivated researchers to come up with a medical solution.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, frequent epidemics made polio the most feared disease in the world. A major outbreak in New York City in 1916 killed over 2,000 people, and the worst recorded US outbreak in 1952 killed over 3000. Survivors of the disease faced lifelong consequences.