He saved millions of lives - Wilson Greatbatch
He was called "a modest do-it-yourselfer". This makeshift barn was the first prototype of the 1958 pacemaker, a device that allowed millions of people to live normal lives.
He was born on September 6, 1919 in Buffalo, the son of an immigrant from England. It was named after the US President, who was also popular in Poland, Woodrow Wilson.
SUMMARY: Wilson Greatbatch Date and place of birth: September 6, 1919, Buffalo, New York, USA (died September 27, 2011) Citizenship: American Marital status: married, five children Luck: Founded by the inventor, Greatbatch Ltd. is not listed on the stock exchange - its value is estimated at several billion dollars. Education: Cornell University State University of New York at Buffalo An experience: phone assembler, electronics company manager, university lecturer, entrepreneur Interests: DIY canoeing
As a teenager, he became interested in radio engineering. During the Great Patriotic War he served in the army as a radio communications specialist. After the war, he worked for a year as a telephone repairman, then studied electrical engineering and engineering, first at Cornell University and then at the University at Buffalo, where he received a master's degree. He was not an excellent student, but this is due to the fact that, in addition to studying, he had to work to support his family - in 1945 he married Eleanor Wright. The work allowed him to be close to the events associated with the rapid development of electronics of that time. After completing his master's degree, he became manager of the Taber Instrument Corporation in Buffalo.
Unfortunately, the company was reluctant to take risks and invest in the new inventions it wanted to work on. So he decided to leave her. He undertook independent activities on his own ideas. At the same time, from 1952 to 1957, he lectured at his home in Buffalo.
Wilson Greatbatch was an avid scientist who was fascinated by the possibility of using electrical devices to improve our quality of life. He experimented with equipment that could measure blood pressure, blood sugar, heart rate, brain waves, and anything else that could be measured.
You will save thousands of people
In 1956 he was working on a device that was supposed to heart rate recording. When assembling the circuits, not a resistor was soldered, as originally planned. The mistake turned out to be fraught with consequences, as the result was a device that works in accordance with the rhythm of the human heart. Wilson believed that heart failure and interruptions in the work of the heart muscle caused by congenital or acquired defects could be compensated for by an artificial pulse.
The electrical device we call today pacemaker, implanted in the patient's body, is used to electrically stimulate the heart rhythm. It replaces the natural pacemaker, i.e., the sinus node, when it ceases to perform its function or conduction disturbances occur in the atrioventricular node.
The idea for an implantable pacemaker came to Greatbatch in 1956, but was initially rejected. In his opinion, the level of miniaturization of electronics at that time ruled out the creation of a useful stimulant, not to mention implanting it in the body. However, he began work on the miniaturization of the pacemaker and the creation of a shield that protected the electronic system from bodily fluids.
Wilson Greatbatch with a pacemaker on his arm
On May 7, 1958, Greatbatch, along with doctors at the Veterans Administration hospital in Buffalo, demonstrated a device reduced to a volume of several cubic centimeters that effectively stimulates the dog's heart. Around the same time, he realized that he was not the only person in the world who was thinking and working on a pacemaker. At that time, intensive research into this solution was carried out at least in several American centers and in Sweden.
Since then, Wilson has devoted himself exclusively to work on the invention. He kept them in the barn of his home in Clarence, New York. His wife Eleanor assisted him in his experiments, and his most important medical officer was Dr. William S. Chardak, Chief Surgeon at Buffalo Hospital. When they first met, Wilson reportedly asked if, as a doctor, he would be interested in an implantable pacemaker. Chardak said, "If you can do something like this, you will save 10K." human lives every year."
Batteries are a real revolution
The first pacemaker based on his idea was implanted in 1960. The operation took place at Buffalo Hospital under the direction of Chardak. The 77-year-old patient lived with the device for eighteen months. In 1961, the invention was licensed to Medtronic of Minneapolis, which soon became the market leader. At present, the prevailing opinion is that the then Chardak-Greatbatch device did not stand out from other designs of that time with the best technical parameters or design. However, it won the competition because its creators made better business decisions than others. One such event was the sale of a license.
Greatbatch engineer made a fortune on his invention. So he decided to face the challenge of the new technology - mercury-zinc batterieswhich lasted only two years, which did not satisfy anyone.
He obtained the rights to lithium iodide battery technology. He turned it into a safe solution, as they were originally explosive devices. In 1970 he founded the company Wilson Greatbatch Ltd. (Currently Greatbatch LLC), which was engaged in the production of batteries for pacemakers. In 1971, he developed a lithium iodide based. RG-1 battery. This technology was initially resisted, but over time it has become the dominant method of powering starters. Its popularity is determined by its relatively high energy density, low self-discharge and overall reliability.
Greatbatch on a homemade solar kayak
According to many, it was only the use of these batteries that made the real success of the starter on a mass scale possible. There was no need to repeat operations comparatively often in patients who were never indifferent to health. Currently, about a million of these devices are implanted worldwide every year.
Active until the end
X-ray image of a patient with a pacemaker
Inventions made Greatbatch famous and rich, but he continued to work until old age. He patented more than 325 inventions. These include, for example, tools for AIDS research or a solar-powered kayak, in which the inventor himself traveled more than 250 km on a journey through the lakes of New York State to celebrate his 72nd birthday.
Later in his life, Wilson undertook new and ambitious projects. For example, he has invested his time and money in the development of plant-based fuel technology or participated in the work of the University of Wisconsin-Madison on the construction of a fusion reactor. “I want to push OPEC out of the market,” he said.
In 1988, Greatbatch was inducted into a prestigious organization. National Inventors Hall of Famejust like his idol Thomas Edison used to be. He liked to give lectures to young people, during which he repeated: “Don't be afraid of failure. Nine out of ten inventions will be useless. But the tenth - it will be him. All efforts will pay off." When his eyesight no longer allowed him to read the works of engineering students himself, he forced him to read them to his secretary.
Greatbatch was awarded the medal in 1990. National Medal of Technology. In 2000, he published his autobiography, Making the Pacemaker: A Celebration of a Life-Saving Invention.
