Pressure and Suction Apparatus

A whole class of early-20th-century office apparatus did two jobs from one small motor: it delivered *pressure* — pushing air through a bottle to spray, nebulize or carry ether vapor to a mask — and it drew *suction*, pulling blood and secretions out of the operative field into a trap. A twin-cylinder pump, a pair of air purifiers, and two deliberately non-interchangeable bottles let a single compact machine serve the ear-nose-throat specialist, the anesthetist and the minor-surgical table. This subject collects the individual machines studied under that heading. Its founding piece is a C. M. Sorensen "Tankless" combination outfit from Jeff's own collection — sold at auction as an *embalming machine*, and proven by Sorensen's own 1926 catalog and a 1917 anesthesia-journal advertisement to be the No. 60 "Dr. S. Yankauer Outfit for Pressure and Suction," a device for tonsil and adenoid work, not the mortuary. The apparatus is described at the level of how it moves and pressurizes air; it is never presented as clinical instruction.