Anaesth Intensive Care 2009; 37 (Suppl 1): 55-56
Correspondence
The Fisher & Paykel Humidifier But Matt Spence told me he had specifically asked
First, congratulations to all concerned with the Alf Melville to devise for our patients’ ventilators
production of an enjoyable and visually attractive and humidifiers, a system controlling ‘rain-out’
History Supplement for your issue of July 2008. from inspiratory air/gases into the tubing delivering
May I make a few comments on the first article1 them. As has been described1,2(p. 120),6, Alf’s solution to
which has a few errors? Since its author references this problem was to install a fail-safe, temperature-
the book Intensive Care in New Zealand2, I want to controllable, heating wire along the delivery tube’s
ensure that a couple of these errors are not thought length, to stop decline of the humidifier’s (near-to-
to derive from that book. body) temperature of water-saturated outlet gases
Regarding Professor Ross Holland’s article as they passed down the delivery tube, thereby
“Against the odds”1, concerning the Fisher & Paykel maintaining the full saturation and so preventing
humidifier, manufactured in Auckland by Fisher condensation. (That feature also helped reduce
& Paykel’s offshoot, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, water droplets on the expiratory valve of the Bird
I draw your attention to the following. ventilator.)
After a successful intervention at Auckland’s Although the famous original prototype used
Green Lane Hospital in 1949 (see p. 48 of this issue what we in Intensive Care in New Zealand2(p. 120) called
for details), electrical engineer Alfred W Melville, a “Jam Jar”, as does Professor Holland1(p. 4), that term
(“Alf”, Figure 1)3 became closely involved with is misleading since it was one of Mrs Melville’s
cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons. His “Agee”-type preserving jars, as has been pictured1,2.
contributions advanced the technology used in both As to its present whereabouts, the jar is now on
cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery, and his first public display at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare at
relevant publication dates from 19513. So, as Auckland, where it is a company treasure.
Professor Holland states, Alf Melville had certainly The article’s Figure 81(p. 5) features not Alf
“already been introduced to the arcane world of Melville, as the caption states, but Dave O’Hare, as
high-tech medicine and surgery”1, prior to developing evidenced in Figure 27. From 1931 to 2006 Dave was
his famous 1968 prototype, later to become the Fisher & Paykel’s engineering link-man with both
highly successful Fisher & Paykel humidifier. Alf Melville of the Department of Scientific and
Additionally, it should be noted that Alf Melville’s Industrial Research, DSIR and Matt Spence,
inventiveness extended beyond the cardiac scene