Defibrillator

Ohmite Manufacturing Co. · 1947

Claude Schaeffer Beck (1894-1971) was a pioneering cardiac surgeon who received a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University, spent most of his career at Case Western Reserve University, and became the first to successfully revive a patient by directly shocking the heart with a defibrillator. This defibrillator is one of three prototypes known to exist. An inscription reads “OHMITE / TRADE MARK / REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. / VITREOUS / ENAMELED / RHEOSTAT-POTENTIOMETER / PAT. NOS. RE-19607 – 2040278 / OTHER PATENTS PENDING / OHMITE MFG. CO. / CHICAGO, ILL. / MADE IN / UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.” The patent was issued to David T. Siegel (d. 1957), founder of the Ohmite Mfg. Co.