The first widely used iron lung was created in 1927 by Philip Drinker and Louis Agassiz Shaw at Harvard University; it went into clinical use around 1928–1929 and became known as the “Drinker respirator.”

Who made the iron lung?

  • The original iron lung (negative-pressure mechanical respirator) was invented by Philip Drinker, an engineer and industrial hygienist, and Louis Agassiz Shaw, a physiologist, both working at Harvard.
  • Drinker is often named as the primary inventor, and the device is frequently called the Drinker respirator in historical and medical references.
  • Their first full-scale device was built in 1927 and first used successfully on a human patient in 1928, then adopted more broadly in 1929 during early polio-care use.

What about “Emerson” iron lungs?

  • A later and very influential model was designed in 1931 by John Haven Emerson, who improved the Drinker design by making it lighter, cheaper, and mechanically more reliable.
  • Emerson’s version added features like a sliding bed (“cookie tray”), access windows, and quieter drive systems, which is why many photos from mid‑20th‑century polio wards show Emerson-style tanks.

So if you’re asking “who made the iron lung,” the core answer is Drinker and Shaw as the original inventors, with Emerson as the key later improver whose models became iconic.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.