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Keidel Vacuum Bleeding Tube - For the Quick and Aseptic Collection of Blood for the Wassermann and Other Reactions

National Museum of American History

Object Details

Hynson, Westcott & Dunning, Incorporated
Description
An inscription on the cardboard box reads in part, “THE KEIDEL VACUUM BLEEDING TUBE / FOR THE QUICK AND ASEPTIC COLLECTION OF BLOOD FOR THE WASSERMANN AND OTHER REACTIONS.” The Wasserman test for syphilis was developed at the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, in 1906, and named for August Paul von Wassermann (1866-1925), a German bacteriologist. Albert Keidel (1877-1942), a physician affiliated with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, designed the form of this tube.
Ref: Albert Keidel, “A Sample Bleeding Tube for Obtaining Specimens for the Wasserman Reaction,” Journal of the American Medical Association 58 (1912): 1579.
Testing blood serum for the presence of antibodies required specialized tools and techniques for collecting blood samples without introducing contaminants. The Keidel Vacuum Bleeding Tube, introduced around 1915, provided one solution. Each sterile package contained a needle attached via a short rubber tube to a sealed glass vacuum tube. After the needle was inserted into the vein, the seal was broken, allowing blood to be drawn quickly into the glass tube. The sample could then be resealed and sent to the laboratory for testing. The Keidel device was marketed particularly for the Wassermann test—a serological test for syphilis developed in 1906. The diagnostic test aided public health departments in their efforts to control the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of Howard Kouzel
ca 1915-1920
ID Number
2002.0224.16
catalog number
2002.0224.16
accession number
2002.0224
Object Name
diagnostic, blood, syphilis
syringe, blood collection
Physical Description
glass (overall material)
metal (overall material)
rubber (overall material)
cotton (overall material)
cardboard (overall material)
paper (overall material)
Measurements
overall, box: 6 cm x 18.5 cm x 6.5 cm; 2 3/8 in x 7 5/16 in x 2 9/16 in
box: 2 3/8 in x 7 1/4 in x 2 1/2 in; 6.0325 cm x 18.415 cm x 6.35 cm
tube: 6 1/8 in x 5/8 in; x 15.5575 cm x 1.5875 cm
overall, inserts (flattened): 3 in x 7 in; 7.62 cm x 17.78 cm
place made
United States: Maryland, Baltimore
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Medicine
The Antibody Initiative
Health & Medicine
Antibody Initiative: Diagnostics
Antibody Initiative: Infectious Disease, Allergy, and Immunotherapy Collections
National Museum of American History
Record ID
nmah_1003975
Metadata Usage (text)
CC0
GUID (Link to Original Record)
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a8-9ef3-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

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