Eschmann Equipment, Archive

Two film reels and two photograph albums compiled by the Eschmann Equipment company. Includes two photograph albums of operating tables and accessories (one titled 'Operation Tables Photographs' the other titled 'Tables and Accessories Orthotec No. 4 Production Line'), and two films - one is titled 'The Eschmann Electro Surgery Film' produced in 1983. The albums also contain photographs of the Minister of Health, Derek Walker-Smith, examining the A. and H. Operation Table at the First International Hospital Equipment and Medical Services Exhibition at London Olympia in 1958.

The Eschmann company was first established in the 1830s, making bougies, catheters and surgical instruments. Initially based in London, after the Second World War the business moved its operations to Shoreham, West Sussex, at the request of a government concerned about the Cold War's impact on the business, who were the only to be making braided catheters. Eschmann later became a pioneer in the production of operating tables and operating theatre environments for hospitals, and the company also manufactured autoclaves and surgical suction pumps. The company remains in West Sussex and produced the T20 Operating Table in 2002, the first table to feature an electronically traverse function.

The collection consists of photograph albums of designs of operating tables, and films produced by the Eschmann company.

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