Health Sciences · Hospital for Sick Children
A squat, cylindrical metal can with a flat base, a slightly domed top, and a cylindrical metal cap with a notch in its upper surface. The cap can be unscrewed to reveal a copper coloured element covering the opening on the threaded neck beneath. The can has a cream-coloured label around its perimeter. A metal wire is wound around a threaded section beneath the cap.
Accession Number: 2025.sk.28
Alternative Name: Baker’s Aneasthetic Ether
Primary Materials: Metal
61071, Written “DR”// Stamped on cap: PATENT// No. 427449
Dimensions (cm): Height = 8.3, Max Diam = ,
Diethyl ether is a volatile liquid that was used as a general anesthetic beginning in the 1840s. Its primary disadvantage was its extreme flammability.
Ether was largely replaced by newer general anesthetics around the 1960s.
The artifact is empty. The label is intact and legible, but work and marked. Exposed metal surfaces are work and lightly oxidized.
Associated Instruments:
Manufacturer: May & Baker, Ltd., Dagenham, Essex, UK.
Date of Manufacture: Early to mid 20th c.
Provenance:
Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History. “May and Baker“. Webpage. (Archived June 29, 2024).
Historical Notes: