The inventions of John Blease

Abstract

Though he had no formal training in engineering, John Blease of Merseyside invented numerous devices that greatly benefited the practice of anaesthesia. Starting with the turning of component parts for simple anaesthetic machines in the 1930s, he was introduced to clinical anaesthesia and became skilled in the art of dental anaesthesia. In the early 1940s he developed the all-purpose Alfo-Blease anaesthetic machine. In 1945 he designed an intermittent positive pressure ventilator, which was used successfully around Liverpool. After World War II he improved this into the Blease 'Pulmoflator', which was the first British positive-pressure ventilator in commercial production. From then until the early 1960s he patented many other inventions, duly utilized in the manufacture of anaesthetic equipment, in which industry the Blease name survives in the company he founded.