Flashback Friday - Syringe Evolution - UVA School of Nursing

Flashback Friday - Syringe Evolution - UVA School of Nursing

Glass syringes like this one required regular sterilization through the use of an autoclave, steam heat or boiling water.

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Before the advent of plastic, older generations of nurses, especially from the turn of the 20th century through the '40s and '50s, relied solely on glass syringes. They were proficient not only in dosing medication but also in ensuring the meticulous cleaning and sterilization of these instruments after each use.

However, glass syringes had their disadvantages. Besides being costly and fragile, they were incredibly time-consuming to maintain due to the need for thorough sterilization between uses. Throughout the 20th century, it was a routine part of nursing education to teach students how to use an autoclave and other antiseptic techniques to ensure these tools were safe for reuse. According to Bertha Harmer's 1942 "Principles and Practice of Nursing," a quality syringe should withstand up to 150 hours of sterilization.

Glass syringes were the rule through the middle `50s, though they were expensive

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... time intensive, given sterilization requirements, and fragile.

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Often troublesome, they'd sometimes get stuck - requiring devices like this ...

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... called a syringe opener, to force the barrel and plunger apart for cleaning.

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Some glass syringes came with syringe holders (this holder is pewter).

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Inventor Arthur Smith created the first disposable glass syringe in the `40s...

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a design which Af-Am inventor Phil Brooks improved upon in his 1974 patent.

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Often, these glass syringes would stick together, requiring a special tool known as a syringe opener to separate the barrel from the plunger. When such a tool was unavailable, Harmer recommended boiling the syringes in a glycerine solution or using ether to help separate the parts.

The introduction of disposable syringes marked a significant advancement. Arthur E. Smith, an inventor from Los Angeles, was the first to develop disposable glass syringes in the late 1940s, securing multiple patents. Later, Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD), founded in 1897, became the first to mass-produce these syringes in 1954, famously using them to administer the polio vaccine to millions of children. Shortly after, plastic disposable syringes like the Monoject were introduced by Roehr Products, making sterilization issues a thing of the past.

In 1956, Colin Murdoch from New Zealand created the first disposable sterile prefilled syringe, revolutionizing the field further. Murdoch, who also invented the childproof medicine bottle cap, demonstrated exceptional ingenuity by holding over 46 patents by the time of his passing in 2008. BD mass-produced Murdoch’s Plastipak design in 1961, a product that remains widely used today. Phil Brooks later enhanced disposable syringe technology in 1974, earning a significant patent for his improvements.

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This Flashback Friday was brought to you by the Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry. Special thanks to professor emerita Arlene Keeling, Bjoring Center director Barbra Mann Wall, and center manager Maura Singleton. Source material includes BD, the US Patent Office, Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry QMed Newsletter, and "The Principles and Practice of Nursing" by Bertha Harmer, fourth edition, 1942.

Parts of a syringe

The syringe is made up of three parts:

The needle

This is a sharp hollow tube that pierces the skin, enabling medication to be injected into the body. The needle is often the part of the syringe that evokes fear in patients!

The barrel

The barrel is the transparent section that holds the medication before injection. Once the medicine is administered, it is no longer visible in the barrel.

The plunger and piston

The plunger and piston work together to control the amount of medicine delivered during an injection.

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