The divided airway, a device to aid in blind orotracheal intubation, was patented in 1936 by John Urban Human. However, the inventor did not describe or openly promote his airway and his identity as its inventor was not known to his contemporaries. A biography of John Urban Human and a description of the divided airway are provided.
SykesWS.Oral endotracheal intubation without laryngoscopy: a plea for simplicity. Anesth Analg1937; 16:133–136.
2.
SykesWS.Essays on the first hundred years of anaesthesia. E. & S. Livingstone Limited, Edinburgh1960; p. 109. [Reprinted in 1982 by the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, Park Ridge, IL, USA].
3.
LundyJS.Clinical Anesthesia. A manual of clinical anesthesiology. W.B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia1942; p. 280, 453.
4.
GillespieNA.Endotracheal Anesthesia, 3rd ed. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison1963; p. 92–94.
5.
HumanJU.The secrets of blind intubation and the signs of anaesthesia. John Bale, Sons & Curnow Ltd, London1938.
6.
HumanJU.Blind intubation and the signs of anaesthesia. John Bale Medical Publications Ltd, London1941.
7.
HumanJU.Blind intubation and the signs of anaesthesia. H. K. Lewis & Co. Ltd, London, 1947.
8.
HaridasRP.The inventor of the divided airway. Anaesthesia2008; 63:1263–1264.
9.
BermanRA.A method for blind oral intubation of the trachea or esophagus. Anesth Analg1977; 56:866–867.
10.
HargraveR.Endotracheal anesthesia in surgery of the head and neck. Anesth Analg1937; 16:181–186.
11.
ChallisJHT.Anesthesia for the operation of dissection of tonsils. Anesth Analg1937; 16:82–84.
12.
ClementFW, McCarthyKC.The nasal method of endotracheal nitrous oxid-oxygen anesthesia for oral surgery. Anesth Analg1937; 16:101–105.
