and as a result people who needed extended assistance from the device were able to use one in their private residences: indeed, in 2003 there were still five privately owned Both respirators being used in residences within Victoria. Both and Nuffield In 1938 Edward Both traveled to England to sell an electrocardiograph which he had invented. While there he heard over BBC Radio a request for an iron lung to help treat a young patient residing in a country hospital. Responding to the call, Both hired a workshop and assembled one of his designs within 24 hours, and the Both respirator was able to quickly gain the approval of the London County Council. Subsequently, he built more of the respirators during his stay, and one was sent to the Nuffield Department of Anaesthetics at the Radcliffe Infirmary where a short film was made of the device. This film was subsequently shown to William Morris (Lord Nuffield) by Robert Macintosh, the department's Professor. Nuffield was known as the manufacturer of the Morris motor car as well as a philanthropist. Nuffield was taken by the design, and in November of that year he offered to turn over part of his car factory for the manufacture of the Both respirators, and to provide the respirators free of charge to any hospital in the Commonwealth that requested one. In spite of some initial opposition – Nuffield was criticized in the British Medical Journal by Frederick Menzies for using a design before the iron lung had been perfected, and for supplying it to hospitals which may lack the knowledge as to how to employ it – over 1700 Both-Nuffield respirators were distributed to hospitals. By the early 1950s, for example, there were over 700 Both-Nuffield iron lungs in the United Kingdom, compared with only 50 Drinker's models. References Respiratory therapy Australian inventions Mechanical ventilation