Aspirator, designed by Pierre Potain (1825-1901) in 1869, consists of a metal air pump, a trocar with a cannula and a puncture needle, a two-way stopcock for a collecting vessel and two rubber hoses. If the stopcock is opened on the side of the trocar and closed on the opposite side and the piston is pulled, negative pressure is produced in the vessel. When the pump is closed and the trocar is pulled out of the cannula, the stopcock is opened on the side of the cannula and the vacuum in the bottle draws blood, pus or air from the pleural cavity. The septic liquid passes only between the body, the rubber hoses and the vessel, limiting the risk of further infection. Aspirator after Potain, 1920s, NML Medical Museum, N 487. Photograph by Tereza Vobecká- Veronika Löblová

Potain’s Aspirator, Aesculap-Musterbuch (Tuttlingen: AG für Feinmechanik vormals Jetter und Scheerer, [1920-1930]), I, 487