barospirator, which caused respiration without moving the lungs at all. Emerson was involved with the development of high-altitude flight valves and SCUBA gear for the Navy shortly before World War II. In 1942 he developed an automatic resuscitator. In 1949 he developed a mechanical assistor for anesthesia with the cooperation of the anesthesia department at Harvard. In 1955 he built a pleural suction pump for postoperative thoracic surgery, the Emerson Postop Pump, which is still widely used. Late in the twentieth century he assisted Alvin Barach in developing the "In-Exsufflator Cough Machine", a device to aid in secretion removal in patients with neuromuscular disease. Relatives Emerson was the brother of Robert Emerson the scientist who discovered that plants have two photoreaction centers. Emerson was the great-grandson of the brother of Ralph Waldo Emerson. His uncle was the illustrator Maxfield Parrish. His first cousin was Bartram “Bart” Kelley, also a nephew of Maxfield Parrish, who was a major designer of military helicopters for Bell Aircraft and Bell Helicopter. Patent images For the lawsuit involving the iron lung, images were lacking on some of the old patents. New drawings were supplied to Emerson by his cousin, Maxfield Parrish Jr. References External links Notes on his life and contributions to respiratory care Obituary at FindArticles.com J. H. Emerson Co. web site Paralysis and Profits Transcript of a 1985 lecture by Emerson Respiration Without Breathing: The Thunberg Barospirator 1906 births 1997 deaths People from New York City 20th-century American inventors