The Depressing Thirties
...ange of bacteria. Also in 1937 insulin was used for the first time to control diabetes. These new antibiotics seemed like magic in their ability to save patients who would previously have died from their serious bacterial infections. Difficulties in childbirth and childhood diseases were common during the nineteen thirties, which led to breakthroughs to prevent these occurrences. Today diphtheria is a very rare disease, but during the thirties it was a deadly bacterial disease that could infect the throat or skin of many children. Other diseases, now considered preventable, where prevalent during this time like scarlet fever, tuberculosis, and rickets. During the thirties doctors looked for ways to prevent these diseases, and today all these illnesses are rare because of vaccines that were created. A major medical achievement during the thirties was the creation of the first blood bank in the United States. In 1937, Chicago’s Cook County Hospital opened the first blood bank that stored blood given by live donors. “This, with improved anesthesia made the chances of surviving major surgery on vital organs much greater” (Cashman 276). This also made for a new safer way to perform blood transfusions. Bernard Fantus, director of therapeutics, at the Chicago Hospital originated the term "blood bank," and within a few years, hospital and community blood banks begin to be established across the United States. Many great accomplishments were made in discovering new medicines and vaccinations, but there were other advances in new surgical devices. “The death of a young patient in 1931 first stirred Dr. Gibbon's imagination about developing an artificial device” for bypassing the heart and lungs” (Schlager 334). Dr. John Gibbons had new ideas that allowed for more effective heart surgery techniques. He was discouraged by other doctors, but he continued his experiments and inventions independently. In 1935 he successfully used a model heart-lung bypass machine to keep a cat alive for twenty-six minutes. In 1935 Gibbon’s uses the first artificial heart in surgery on a dog to demonstrate the device. This opened doors for other physicians to explore different techniques for surgery’s and replacement ideas for vital organs. Although there were so many advances in medicine, scientist also made great strides in the science filed. Scientist, also felt the effects of the Great Depression, because a lot of research suffered from the lack of funding. One great accomplishment began with an amateur astronomer named Clyde Tombaugh. He was hired to search for Planet X, which is a term used for the unknown ninth planet. Tombaugh took photographs of the solar system every one or two weeks and looked for anything that shifted in the sky. This method was very successful and on February 18, 1930 the planet Pluto was discovered. This was a great scientific discovery because Tombaugh is the only American to discover a planet. Another great astronomer of the thirties was Karl Jansky who fist detected radio waves coming from outer space in 1931. This allowed astronomers to see far beyond the range of ordinary telescopes. In 1935, an engineer, Charles Richter created the Richter scale, at the California Institute of Technology. The Richter scale became a widely used method to measure earthquakes and compare there sizes. “One of Dr. Charles F. Richter's most valuable contributions was to recognize that the seismic waves radiated by all earthquakes can provide good estimates of their magnitudes” (Schlager 305). Richter also discovered that not only could his scale be used for earthquakes, but for moonquakes. Today the scale is used to measure quakes on the planet Mars. Research is a key tool for scientist, and with the existing conditions in the thirties, scientist created things to better the lives of Americans. Industrial resear...