George Poe

George Poe, Jr. (May 8, 1846 – February 3, 1914) was a pioneer of mechanical ventilation of asphyxiation victims. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Dr. Poe and His Curious Breathing Machine |url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6830090 |quote=By asphyxiating rabbits, Poe was able to test his device — a pair of brass piston cylinders that could be operated with a handle. Before long, he was reviving rabbits. He moved on to larger and larger animals. In 1907 and '08, he traveled from city to city, demonstrating his invention for audiences of impressed physicians. |publisher=National Public Radio |date= |accessdate=2008-07-06 ] ["An Artificial Respirator", Scientific American, June 22, 1907, page 515.] He was the first person to manufacture nitrous oxide for commercial use in his Trenton, New Jersey company. cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Smother Small Dog To See it Revived. Successful Demonstration of an Artificial Respiration Machine Cheered in Brooklyn. Women in the Audience, But Most of Those Present Were Physicians. The Dog, Gathered in from the Street, Wagged Its Tail. |url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
New York Times |date=May 29, 1908, Friday |accessdate=2007-12-25 ] cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=George Poe is Dead |url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/243050292.html?dids=243050292:243050292&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=FEB+03%2C+1914&author=&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=GEORGE+POE+IS+DEAD&pqatl=google |quote=Cousin of Famous Poet and Noted as a Scientist. Inventor of the Respirator. Also First to Liquefy Nitrous Oxide. Cadet at Virginia Military Institute at Time of Battle of Newmarket. Mentioned for the Nobel Prize for Scientific Attainment in Chemistry. Prof. George Poe, a cousin of the poet Edgar Allan Poe, a noted scientist and inventor, who had been mentioned for the Nobel prize for scientific attainment, a former resident of Washington, died in Norfolk, Virginia, yesterday of general paralysis. Prof. Poe was in his sixty-eighth year. |publisher=Washington Post |date=February 3, 1914 |accessdate=2007-12-29 ] [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=George Poe |url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Norfolk, Virginia, yesterday. He was 68 years old and had held chairs in chemistry, especially as relating to gases. |publisher=New York Times |date=February 4, 1914 |accessdate=2007-12-29 ]

Birth

He was the son of George Poe, Sr. (1808-?) and Elizabeth Ross Ellicott (1810-1881), who married on December 14, .

Education and career

He attended the Virginia Military Institute, and after fighting in the American Civil War, Poe built the Poe Chemical Works in Trenton, New Jersey, USA, which included the first plant in America for mass-producing liquid nitrous oxide. He chose Trenton because of its gas works which created the raw materials for creating nitrous oxide. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Poe's Chemical Works. Outgrowth of Many Experiments. |url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Trenton Times |date=August 17, 1883 |accessdate=2008-07-06 ] By 1883 he was supplying about 5000 dentists with laughing gas. cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Poe's cure for death. |url=http://www.nemsmf.org/content/articles/george-poe-pdf.pdf |quote=One spring evening in 1908 three doctors stood before an expectant audience in the library of the Medical Society of the County of Kings in Brooklyn, New York. Before they began their demonstration, they needed one last thing. "Fetch a stray dog," they cried, tossing a quarter to an urchin outside. The boy returned with a yelping yellow mutt, which the doctors gently petted until it wagged its tail. Then they hog-tied and smothered it. The dog struggled for a few agonized minutes before giving a low moan and going limp. It was a scene worthy of Poe - not the great master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe, but his cousin George. For he had promised the audience a feat befitting his family name: this dog would be brought back from the dead. |publisher=New Scientist |date=13 January 2007 |accessdate=2007-12-26 ]

Using the resources of his factory, Poe experimented with oxygen cylinders and tubing and found that he could resuscitate rats and rabbits that he had suffocated. In 1889, he undertook a nationwide tour. He claimed that his apparatus could revive humans who had drowned or been poisoned by gas lamps, and should be available in all hotels and lodging houses to deal with gas poisoning.

Illness

Illness curtailed his activities. By 1900, he was nearly blind and partly paralyzed, and his doctors advised him to relocate to the country and retire. He moved to the Norfolk, Virginia farm of a friend, Abram Cline Ostrander. [Abram Cline Ostrander was born on September 12, 1843 and died on October 2, |accessdate=2008-07-05 ] [Ostrander: A Genealogical Record, 1660-1995, by Emmett and Vinton Ostrander, page 448] Arthur Ostrander acted as Poe's eyes and hands, allowing him to further refine his device. In 1907 he began another tour, accompanied by Arthur Ostrander, and two Norfolk physicians, Dr. Francis Morgan and Dr. J. P. Jackson. He gained fresh publicity in 1909 when a man called Moses Goodman was revived using his apparatus. Again, his health prevented him from doing much, and other inventors developed their own artificial respirators.

Death

He died on February 3, 1914 in Norfolk, Virginia. An obituary said that he had been nominated for a Nobel Prize. He was buried in Confederate Square, a Civil War memorial situated within Magnolia Cemetery, in Norfolk, Virginia. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Professor George Poe Passed Away Yesterday |url= |quote= |publisher=Ledger-Dispatch |date=February 3, 1914 |accessdate=2008-07-05 ] [Cemetery Records of Riverside-Magnolia Cemetery, Norfolk, Virginia]

Patents

*US Patent|859778 Artificial Respiration (1907)
*US Patent|978641 Gas Generator I (1909)
*US Patent|929875 Gas Generator II (1909)
*US Patent|859778 Safety Breathing Armor (1911)

References

External links

*National Public Radio|6830090
* [http://genealogy.wikia.com/wiki/George_Poe_%281846-1914%29 George Poe in Wikia Genealogy]