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Collections * Subjects * Object Groups * About the Online Collection * FAQ * Rights and Reproductions Jet Automatic Hypodermic Injection Apparatus - Vaccine Gun Jet Automatic Hypodermic Injection Apparatus - Vaccine Gun Previous Next [deliverySe] [deliverySe] [deliverySe] [deliverySe] [deliverySe] [deliverySe] [deliverySe] [deliverySe] [deliverySe] [deliverySe] [deliverySe] << >> Usage conditions apply [iiif] Downloads Metadata International Media Interoperability Framework IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. View manifest View in Mirador Usage conditions apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. Usage conditions apply [iiif] Downloads Metadata International Media Interoperability Framework IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. View manifest View in Mirador Usage conditions apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. Usage conditions apply [iiif] Downloads Metadata International Media Interoperability Framework IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. View manifest View in Mirador Usage conditions apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. Usage conditions apply [iiif] Downloads Metadata International Media Interoperability Framework IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. View manifest View in Mirador Usage conditions apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. Usage conditions apply [iiif] Downloads Metadata International Media Interoperability Framework IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. View manifest View in Mirador Usage conditions apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. Usage conditions apply [iiif] Downloads Metadata International Media Interoperability Framework IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. View manifest View in Mirador Usage conditions apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. Usage conditions apply [iiif] Downloads Metadata International Media Interoperability Framework IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. View manifest View in Mirador Usage conditions apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. Usage conditions apply [iiif] Downloads Metadata International Media Interoperability Framework IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. View manifest View in Mirador Usage conditions apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. Usage conditions apply [iiif] Downloads Metadata International Media Interoperability Framework IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. View manifest View in Mirador Usage conditions apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. Usage conditions apply [iiif] Downloads Metadata International Media Interoperability Framework IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. View manifest View in Mirador Usage conditions apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. Usage conditions apply [iiif] Downloads Metadata International Media Interoperability Framework IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. View manifest View in Mirador Usage conditions apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. Description Throughout the 19th century, vaccination became increasingly common and by the mid-20th century, smallpox was on the decline across the world. Yet even as it declined, smallpox lingered in less developed areas of the world. Increased travel in the 1950s meant that the presence of smallpox even in remote areas presented a hazard to unvaccinated Americans and others who lived in countries which had successfully eradicated the disease. Early estimates of the number of people who would need to be vaccinated to break the global chain of infection were in the range of 1.5 billion, with many of these people living in some of the most remote and inaccessible areas of the world. Mass vaccination would also require finding and training people to vaccinate others. During the eight years of planning which preceded the launch of the smallpox eradication campaign, WHO leaders looked for an easy and cost-effective way to administer the vaccine. By the official start of the smallpox eradication campaign in 1967, the WHO had found the answer: the jet injector. Nicknamed "la pistola de la paz" in Nicaragua and "shanti ki handuk" in India, the jet injector was widely hailed as "the peace gun." A gun-like device that administered painless injections without needles, the injector was the brainchild of Robert Hingson, an American physician. Hingson's device used a piston to propel the vaccine at a rapid speed into and under the skin--the vaccine moved so quickly and under such pressure that no needles were needed. Public health practitioners gleefully noted that this method of vaccination was so painless that it could be used on a sleeping baby. But best of all, the jet injector could hold 500 or more doses of vaccine, meaning that hundreds of doses could be delivered within an hour. By the late 1950s, WHO officials had begun eyeing the jet injector, seeing it as the perfect mechanism for a mass vaccination campaign. But two problems remained before the jet injector could be used in the smallpox eradication campaign. First, the vaccines that had been administered with the jet injector were injected subcutaneously, that is under the skin. Smallpox vaccine, however, needed to be inserted intradermally, that is between the layers of skin. Second, developing a jet injector that could deliver the dose intradermally would only resolve part of the problem--jet injectors were powered by electricity, which made using them in remote areas impossible. Aaron Ismach solved both of these problems, first by creating a special nozzle that delivered the vaccine intradermally and then by developing a pedal-operated and hydraulically powered model of the jet injector. Early in 1965, a pilot vaccine project was conducted in Brazil. Widely hailed as a success, this project proved not only that the jet injector could easily be used in the field but also that widespread use of the jet injector would require less manpower and cost significantly less than a campaign using conventional vaccination methods. The "peace gun" played a crucial role in the early stages of the smallpox eradication program. Unfortunately, because wear and tear often damaged jet injectors, their use required WHO to maintain a staff that could care for these devices. As a result, jet injectors were used only in places like Brazil where the campaign was highly organized. In other areas, a bifurcated needle, which could be easily used and sterilized, delivered the vaccine. As vaccinators crisscrossed the world using both the jet injector and the bifurcated needle, the WHO carefully tracked smallpox outbreaks and cases. In 1980, two years after the last case of smallpox had been documented, WHO officials proudly announced "Smallpox is Dead!" But smallpox was not truly dead. It was simply serving a life sentence, confined to a handful of government laboratories. Location Currently not on view Object Name biological vaccinator, gun place made United States: New Jersey, Carlstadt Physical Description steel; metal; cotton; plastic; paint; paper (overall (case) material) Measurements overall: 7 in x 12 in x 13 1/2 in; 17.78 cm x 30.48 cm x 34.29 cm gun: 8 1/4 in x 9 3/4 in x 1 3/4 in; 20.955 cm x 24.765 cm x 4.445 cm gun with tubing and foot pedal: 82 in; x 208.28 cm foot pedal: 3 1/2 in x 4 in x 11 in; 8.89 cm x 10.16 cm x 27.94 cm part (case): 6 3/4 in x 12 1/2 in x 14 in; 17.145 cm x 31.75 cm x 35.56 cm ID Number 2011.0130.01 accession number 2011.0130 catalog number 2011.0130.01 Credit Line Government Transfer from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention See more items in Medicine and Science: Medicine The Antibody Initiative Health & Medicine Antibody Initiative: Smallpox Data Source National Museum of American History Nominate this object for photography. Nominate Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online. If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions. Comments This object was among several I "rescued" from the warehouse of the CDC in Atlanta, which had notified me as the CDC medical epidemiologist serving as point-of-contact for jet injection, that around 60 of these Ped-O-Jet(r) devices and a cabinet of their spare parts were to be surplused and sold off to the public at auction (https://bit.ly/Vaccines6thChap61a). The reason for selecting this particular one (and providing some missing components from spares) for the eminent Smithsonian Institution collection was its address label which returned it to CDC from the Rhode Island Department of Health. The label's mailing date suggested it had been used in the swine influenza mass-vaccination campaign of 1976. None of the other dozen or so jet injectors transferred at no charge to medical-history museums on three continents had such evidence of its last usage. I write because it is a shame that among the 11 photographs of this object, none provides a full-frame view of this mailing label, which is but partially and tangentially visible in just one of the photographs (#2 of 11). Bruce G. Weniger, MD, MPH, CAPT USPHS (ret.) Wed, 2021-02-10 09:48 Note: Comment submission is temporarily unavailable while we make improvements to the site. We apologize for the interruption. If you have a question relating to the museum's collections, please first check our Collections FAQ. If you require a personal response, please use our Contact page. Collections Search Search for... 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