The iron lung is a mechanical respiratory device used to force air into and out of the lungs of a person unable to breathe for themselves. Invented in 1929 by Philip Drinker (1893-1977), a professor at the School of Public Health at Harvard University, the iron lung was one of the first of several inventions designed for this purpose. During the 1920s, people with respiratory failure were aided by a pulmotor, a contraption similar to fireplace bellows, which inflated and deflated the lungs by forcing air in and sucking it out. This process worked; however patients experienced chest pain because the amount of air forced into the lungs was not adjustable to the individual patient's lung capacity. Many people suffering from poliomyelitis--which often paralyzes muscles of the diaphragm, the large, dome-shaped muscle above the stomach which rises and falls to...