Medical School Acquires Large Tank Capable of Producing High and Low Pressures--Will Study Effects on Men

Yesterday afternoon a large truck carrying a machine that looked like a submarine drove up Longwood Avenue to the Harvard Medical School. After considerable maneuvering, the truck backed into the grounds of the School of Public Health and slid its load down an incline into a specially constructed building.

The submarine shaped object is a tank for the study of the physiological effects of high and low pressures. It is of circular form, 35 feet long and eight in diameter, and is of half-inch welded steel. Pressures as high as 60 pounds per square inch and as low as those found at an altitude of 25,000 feet can be obtained, and gases of any desired mixture, humidity, and temperature can be fed in any desired amount to the pressure chambers, of which there are two, entered by means of a lock arrangement in the center of the tank. At each end is a small opening through which supplies can be passed.

Two kinds of research will be undertaken by means of the apparatus, according to Dr. Philip Drinker of the School of Public Health. The first will be a study, of the curative effects of high and low pressures in diseases such as pneumonia, heart diseases, and respiratory trouble. Very little is known about the therapeutic value of such treatment, but the easily regulated atmosphere of the pressure chambers make them ideal for such an investigation.

In the second place the tank will be of use in the study of labor under specialized conditions, such as those encountered in tunnel construction, caisson building, altitude flying, and other trades where workers must endure abnormal atmospheric changes. Bicycles and rowing machines will be installed to measure the quantity of work a man can accomplish under varying conditions.

The tank is the gift of J. H. Rand Jr. 'OS, of the Remington-Rand Corporation and was built at a cost of $135,000. It is the first in the country which will be able to give both high and low pressures, for which purpose each compartment is equipped with two doors. The apparatus was constipueted at Akron Ohio, according to plans drawn up by A. J. Van Woert of the Harvard Engineering School.