Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

Steam generator Lucas Championnière-type (1920 – 1940)

Medical instrument that was used to generate sprays containing a mixture of water steam and an active pharmaceutical drug or product. The spray produced would be inhaled by a patient, for the administration of the drug, or eventually used for disinfection purposes. The steam generator works with an alcohol lamp and should be dated to 1920 – 1940. The steam generator is not marked by any maker or retailer but should be of French origin, as is engraved with the word “PARIS”. Nevertheless, this device is very similar to the instrument engraved on the 1905, 1923 and 1931 catalogues of the French company Gentile (Paris), where it is named “Pulvérisateur à vapeur pour inhalations” (panel A in the figure below). Lucas Championnière (1843 - 1913) went to Scotland as a young medical student in 1868, to meet Joseph Lister. Lister originally invented these types of sprayers to disinfect the surgeries before invasive medical interventions, using carbolic acid as a disinfectant (Figure 2), but it was Lucas Championnière who further developed the device.

Figure 1. Steam generators as engraved in the catalogues of several firms: (A, B) Gentile, Paris (1905, 1923 and 1931); (C) Duffaud & Cie (1934); (D) de la Croix (1925); (E, F) Simal (1931); (G) Lépine (1899)

Figure 2. Illustration of the use of carbolic acid spraying to disinfect surgeries before and during invasive medical interventions, as featured in the 1882 book “Antiseptic surgery: its principles, practices and results” by William Watson Cheyne.