Julius Jeffreys

Julius Jeffreys (1800–1877) was a British surgeon and writer, was the inventor of the respirator, and was a pioneer in the development of early air conditioning systems.

Julius Jeffreys was born on 14 September 1800 at Hall Place, Bexley, Kent, England, where his father was the principal of a private school. He was the tenth of sixteen children born to the Reverend Richard and Sarah Jeffreys. When he was three, the family moved to India, where his father had accepted a post as chaplain to the British East India Company. While in India the family was based in Calcutta, but spent some months travelling along the Ganges river on a houseboat. Sarah died in 1809. The family returned to England around 1811.

Along with most of his brothers, Julius was educated by their father. Most of his brothers attended Cambridge University, but Julius was admitted to the University of Edinburgh in 1817 to study medicine. He completed his medical education in London, possibly at Guy's hospital. Julius was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on 1 March 1822.

In 1822, Jeffreys received an appointment of staff surgeon to the HEIC, and was assigned to Calcutta, where he was assigned to duties at the General Hospital. Hearing of the beneficial climate of the remote hill station of Simla (Shimla), Julius obtained a leave of absence and visited the outpost in 1824. While in Simla, Julius wrote an article "Climate of the Hill Provinces (of the Himalayas), and its Connexion with Pathology". The article resulted in the establishment of additional Himalayan hill stations, and his promotion to staff surgeon in the army camp at Cawnpore (Kanpur). While at Cawnpore he invented several air-conditioning systems, including an evaporation cooling system which he termed the refrigerator. He married Ellen Penelope Dougan, in 1825. The couple had five children, before Ellen died on their return journey to England in 1835.

On his arrival in England in 1835, Julius was distressed to find his now-widowed sister, Harriett, suffering from tuberculosis, and he was shocked by the general prevalence of lung diseases in England. In a time before there were medications to treat these ailments, mortality data from the period shows that, except during epidemics, the most common cause of death was lung afflictions.

Julius invented a mask, which he called a "Respirator". The mask worked by capturing moisture and warmth in exhaled air in a grid of fine metal wires. Inhaled air then was warmed and moistened as it passed through the same metal grid, providing relief to sufferers of lung diseases. The invention was patented and received patent number 10287, in 1836. The Respirator became very popular, and was mentioned in the literature of the day, including in the writings of Elizabeth Gaskell, William Makepeace Thackeray and Charles Dickens.

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