John Scott Haldane - Accomplishments

Accomplishments

Haldane was an international authority on ether and respiration and the inventor of the gas-mask during World War I. (The Sciences and Philosophy: Gifford Lectures, University of Glasgow, 1927–28 by J.S. Haldane, Doubleday, Doran and Co., Inc., Garden City, NY, 1929)

Haldane helped determine the regulation of breathing, and discovered the Haldane effect in hemoglobin. He was the founder of The Journal of Hygiene. In 1907 Haldane made a decompression chamber to help make deep-sea divers safer and produced the first decompression tables after extensive experiments with animals. He was also an authority on the effects of pulmonary diseases, such as silicosis caused by inhaling silica dust. After being forced out of combatting poison gases in World War 1, through alleged German sympathies, he shifted into working with victims of gas warfare and developed oxygen treatment including the oxygen tent.