How did a couple of vacuum cleaners end up saving a little girl's life in the 1920's, and how is it connected to a jealous German water nymph?

lanfranco

The first iron lung, made with a pair of vacuum cleaner blowers, saved the life of an 8-year-old polio victim in Boston. I'll get an "Ondine's Curse" site in a minute: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research/Site2029/mainpageS2029P6sublevel7Flevel10.html Mar 04 06, 5:30 PM

lanfranco

Here we go. This site contains a link to Ondine's Curse, a breathing disorder, named after the nymph Ondine in German folklore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_lung Mar 04 06, 5:32 PM

peasypod

Very good Miss Frankie. I was inspired to create this one as I was earlier changing the bag of my vacuum and was reminded of an amusing story of my friend who has just gained a couple perfectly good vacuum cleaners because his friend gave them away as they weren't sucking as well any more....you fill in the dots. * Mar 04 06, 11:11 PM

Baloo55th

Nitpicking time! The name Ondine or Undine doesn't come from folklore, but was invented by Auroleus Phillipus Theostratus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known as Paracelsus, who was Swiss born. An undine (from Latin 'unda' meaning wave) was one of his elemental sprites, in particular a water sprite. The name was taken by the Baron de la Motte Fouqué for his story 'Undine' (1811) which led to numerous poems, ballets etc, and strongly influenced Andersen's 'Little Mermaid'. http://www.behindthename.com/bb_gen/arcview.php?id=23689 If you've never read anything by la Motte Fouqué, do. 'Undine' is probably his best known one, but 'Sintram and his companions' is one of the most spooky things I've ever read. Mar 05 06, 7:49 AM

lanfranco

Baloo, stories of water nymphs and sprites and their intercations with human men long predate Paracelsus and Fouque and have existed in many cultures. Paracelsus may well have invented the name, but the sort of creature to which he applied it had been floating around (if you'll forgive the pun) in folklore for centuries. Mar 05 06, 8:12 AM

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