The 'DeVilbiss Electric Steam Vaporizer'

DeVilbiss Electric Steam Vaporizer No. 148

1927 -- present

"Inhalation of warm medicated vapor to the inflamed respiratory membranes is a treatment recommended for coughs, bronchitis, colds, asthma, deep-seated sore throat, whooping cough and laryngitis. This vaporizer is also useful as a baby bottle warmer and air humidifier."

The DeVilbiss Electric Steam Vaporizer No. 148 was manufactured by "The DeVilbiss Company" in Toledo, Ohio, U.S.A., founded in 1888. In order to have the machine work as intended, the instructions recommend that the user's medication is ground up into a fine powder, put on a cotton swab, and set into a compartment of the steam vaporizer, which would diffuse into the air until the machine automatically shut off  after all of the water had been used.

Steam vaporizers like the one on display here is different from the humidifiers more commonly used today! The first patented steam vaporizer was invented in 1927 by Joseph Robinson but has history as far back as 1864. Steam vaporizers, as their name suggests, boils the water and releases its contents into the air as steam/vapor. The modern version of this tool, the humidifier, came about some time in the 1960s by the invention of either Walton Labs, Inc. or Raymond Banks. Humidifiers differ from a steam vaporizer by either using a fan or a ultrasonic component to diffuse the contents inside into mist. Would you prefer a machine that produces warm instead cool mist? Steam vaporizers are safe to use and still produced today.