Waters To-and-Fro CO2 Absorber

Waters To-and-Fro CO₂ Absorber

Anesthesia, Inhalation

Carbon Dioxide Absorber

Waters, Ralph Milton, 1883-1979

Within anesthesia machines, delivery of the anesthetic to the patient’s airway is the job of the “breathing system” which incorporates a mask or a tracheal tube. Dr. Ralph Waters (1883–1979) introduced this simple device in 1923 designed to prevent the exhalation of anesthetic into the ambient air or to prevent the patient from rebreathing their own carbon dioxide. Waters placed a carbon dioxide absorber, soda lime, in the canister between the gas inlet and the air reservoir bag. The patient was able to rebreathe anesthetic, “to-and-fro,” while the CO₂ was filtered out.

circa 1930–1940s

Brigham and Women's Hospital Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine collection.

physical object