Keidel Vacuum Bleeding Tube - For the Quick and Aseptic Collection of Blood for the Wassermann and Other Reactions

Object Details

Hynson, Westcott & Dunning, Incorporated

Description

An inscription on the cardboard box reads in part, “THE KEIDEL VACUUM BLEEDING TUBE / FOR THE QUICK AND ASEPTIC COLLECTION OF BLOOD FOR THE WASSERMANN AND OTHER REACTIONS.” The Wasserman test for syphilis was developed at the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, in 1906, and named for August Paul von Wassermann (1866-1925), a German bacteriologist. Albert Keidel (1877-1942), a physician affiliated with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, designed the form of this tube.

Ref: Albert Keidel, “A Sample Bleeding Tube for Obtaining Specimens for the Wasserman Reaction,” Journal of the American Medical Association 58 (1912): 1579.

Testing blood serum for the presence of antibodies required specialized tools and techniques for collecting blood samples without introducing contaminants. The Keidel Vacuum Bleeding Tube, introduced around 1915, provided one solution. Each sterile package contained a needle attached via a short rubber tube to a sealed glass vacuum tube. After the needle was inserted into the vein, the seal was broken, allowing blood to be drawn quickly into the glass tube. The sample could then be resealed and sent to the laboratory for testing. The Keidel device was marketed particularly for the Wassermann test—a serological test for syphilis developed in 1906. The diagnostic test aided public health departments in their efforts to control the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Location

Currently not on view

Credit Line

Gift of Howard Kouzel

ca 1915-1920

ID Number

2002.0224.16

catalog number

2002.0224.16

accession number

2002.0224

Object Name

diagnostic, blood, syphilis

syringe, blood collection

Physical Description

glass (overall material)

metal (overall material)

rubber (overall material)

cotton (overall material)

cardboard (overall material)

paper (overall material)

Measurements

overall, box: 6 cm x 18.5 cm x 6.5 cm; 2 3/8 in x 7 5/16 in x 2 9/16 in

box: 2 3/8 in x 7 1/4 in x 2 1/2 in; 6.0325 cm x 18.415 cm x 6.35 cm

tube: 6 1/8 in x 5/8 in; x 15.5575 cm x 1.5875 cm

overall, inserts (flattened): 3 in x 7 in; 7.62 cm x 17.78 cm

place made

United States: Maryland, Baltimore

See more items in

Medicine and Science: Medicine

The Antibody Initiative

Health & Medicine

Antibody Initiative: Diagnostics

Antibody Initiative: Infectious Disease, Allergy, and Immunotherapy Collections

National Museum of American History

Record ID

nmah_1003975

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a8-9ef3-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa