article_snippet.sent: But it wasn't described clinically until 1789.
article_snippet.sent: Although no cure was developed, a device called an iron lung was invented to help people with the disease breathe.
article_snippet.sent: The patient would lie on a bed inside a cylindrical tank, and the machine helped some people become able to breathe again on some people own.
article_snippet.sent: a device called an iron lung cost about $1,500 in the 1930s -- about what a home would cost then, according to the Smithsonian.