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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Nov. 13, 1963
KU Professor Makes Life Possible for Many
By Jackie Stern Assistant Managing Editor
The Air Force captain lay badly burned in an English hospital following the crash of his plane at the close of World War II.
The coma in which he had lain for almost five weeks was broken at intervals by a barely audible whisper "Dermatome, Dermatome."
The particular instrument to which the patient referred was not familiar to the nurses and doctors then. Today this skin-grafting machine invented by a KU professor is widely known as the outstanding invention of its kind during the war.
THE INVENTOR is George J. Hood, professor emeritus of engineering drawing.
The Air Force captain knew of the special skin-grafting machine because he had lived in the basement of Prof. Hood's home while he was a student at the KU Law School. When the patient re entrusted to the United States, a medical officer called Prof. Hood and asked him for help. The captain was one of thousands of World War II veterans to whom the machine had given new life.
PROF. HOOD built the machine in the basement workshop in his home here which was then located in the middle of a cow pasture.
"When I wasn't teaching in the School of Engineering, I was working on the machine," Prof. Hood said.
Following a request for such a machine by Dr. Earl C. Padgett, professor of surgery at the School
of Medicine, George C. Shaad, then Dean of the Engineering School, recommended Prof. Hood.
Dr. Padgett recognized the shortcoming of cutting manual skingrafts and the need for an instrument which would cut uniform skingrafts.
WHEN ASKED how he developed the idea of the machine, Prof. Hood said, "It came from my imagination."
"I just stopped and tried to figure out how it could be done."
Prof. Hood tried out his invention on old sheepskin diplomas and soon found he was able to cut off layers of the sheepskin and even shave off the letterings of a diploma.
The first successful operation using the Dermatome was performed at Bell Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. in 1938. Although Prof. Hood was present just to observe the use of his machine, he ended up cutting the first calibrated skin-graft himself.
SINCE THAT time almost 10,000 instruments have been used in hospitals all over the world. The instrument greatly facilitated the treatment of service men burned in fires and explosions aboard ships and airplanes. It is used in saving legs and arms which might otherwise have been permanently crippled.
The Dermatome is not only valuable during wartime but can be used to cut skin-grafts to repair bad burns received in accidents in the home and in industry. Some patients have been so badly burned that amputations of arms or legs would have been necessary.
Before the invention of the Derm-
High Number of Students Try for Fulbright Grants
This is the largest number ever to submit applications from KU, Prof. Burzle said. He said increased publicity stimulated the "intense interest among students."
Seventy-seven students have applied for Fulbright and Foreign Study grants, according to J. A Burzle, professor of German and chairman of the Fulbright committee.
FORTY-SIX SENIORS from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences submitted applications for continued study in such areas as history of art, economics, mathematics, bacteriology, jurisprudence and sociology.
There were four applications from the School of Fine Arts, two from the School of Journalism, and one each from the Schools of Engineering and Architecture and the School of Education.
Graduate students submitted 23 applications in such fields as architectural engineerign, international relations, Celtic, zoology, voice and English as a foreign language
A FACULTY COMMITTEE appointed by Dean William Albrecht has interviewed the students. Applications have now been forwarded to New York, Washington an
Official Bulletin
TODAY
Le Corcele Français se réunira mercredi le 13 novembre à 16 h. 30 dans la salle 11 de Fraser. Conference par M. le professeur Connelly sur "L'Art et la Revolution." Tous ceux qui s'intéressent au français sont invites.
Timely Topics, 7 p.m. St. Lawrence
Campus, 1260 W. 4th St. Stratford
Board, The Religion of Sacred Spirits
Episcopal Evening Prayer, 9:30 p.m.
Danforth.
TOMORROW
Latter-Day Saints Institute of Re-
thinking, Pan American Room.
Kansas Union.
Der deutsche Stammit诫 trifft sich der Bemerkstag. Den Bemerkstag ist 5 bis 6 Stunden "A" der Kansas Union (Cafeteria). Sie haben hier Geheimnisse zuuchen. Alle sind herzglück eingeladen.
American Society of Tool and Manu-
ufacturing. p. 200-201 New
Engineering Building. Part of
on plastics engineering from Society of
Plastics Associates, Mesa, Mo.
**"Structural Science Organization**
Christian Family Movement, 8 p.m. in
Michelle Student Center, 1915
Stratford Road
College Life, 9 p.m. Dr. C. Weinau'nag's
Kansas City anesthesiologist
Kansas City anesthesiologist
abroad. Preliminary results will be announced in January and the final results in April.
atome, surgeons were afraid to work on the human face. Prof. Hood cited the case of a young girl whose facial appearance had been badly distorted and burned by a gasoline fire.
Members of the committee are George W. Byers, associate professor of entomology; David A. Dineen, assistant professor of romance languages; Felix Moos, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology; Frank Pinet, associate professor of business administration; John W. Pozdro, associate professor of organ and theory; Kenneth E. Rose, professor of metallurgical engineering; Charles F. Sidman, assistant professor of history; Milo R. Stucky, assistant professor of education; and J. A. Burzle, professor of German.
Through the use of the Dermatome machine, the skin from the girl's thigh was transplanted to her face. She is now living a normal life in Kansas City, Mo.
U.S. Embassey Protests Arrest Of Yale Scholar
MOSCOW-(UPI)-The US embassy today protested to the Soviet foreign minister over the arrest of Yale University Prof. Frederick C. Barghoroo on spy charges that carry a possible prison or death sentence.
THE MACHINE which performed these miracle operations consists of a cylindrical drum in which a sharp blade is attached. It is so set that the distance between the cylinder and the blade can be closely adjusted. The cylinder, coated with rubber cement, is rolled on the patient's body and the cement lifts the skin. A knife blade, set to correct thickness, easily slices off a transparent layer of skin, which is then placed in salt solution.
Mikhail Smirnovsky, chief of the American section of the Soviet foreign office, told the embassy that for the moment no details could be provided about Barghoorn's arrest.
There was speculation here that Barghoorn, who came to Russia to study its political institutions, may have been arrested to set up an exchange with Ivan Ivanov, 33, a Soviet chauffeur arrested last month in Englewood, N.J., on charges of complicity in a spy ring.
THE EMBASSY said it would continue to press for an interview with the 53-year-old Soviet affairs expert.
Cloth dressings and sponges are placed on the area where the skin has been grafted. It usually heals in about 10 days.
Barghoorn, who served as a press officer at the US embassy here during World War II, returned this fall on a one-month tourist visa which expired Nov. 1.
"If skin from another part of the body is to be transplanted on the
THERE HAS BEEN no death sentence imposed on a Westerner in recent Soviet history. The last American accused of espionage, Marvin Makinen.
grafted area, it must come from the same person", Prof. Hood said.
"The only exception is for identical twins. Sometimes," he explained, "skin is transplanted from members of a family to cover up the burned area and to keep the body fluids. But the foreign skin always lets go after a month or so. This is done only when patients are in a severe state of shock."
PROF, HOOD, who has invented other instruments and devices, called the Dermatome his most significant invention.
"It has done the most for humanity," he said.
Prof. Hood is not the only member of his family who has contributed to science and medicine. Three members of the Hood family, including himself, have been named to American Men of Science.
Today at 86, Prof. Hood's ingenuity and desire for helping humanity is not lessened. In his apartment on the campus, he keeps a workshop where perhaps another useful instrument may yet be developed.
"Many of the important inventions come out of basement shops," Prof. Hood said.
HE ATTRIBUTED his interest in inventing to his childhood. "As a
Prof. Hood has received the Holley award, which has also been given to such inventors as Henry Ford.
boy I had my own shop. I guess I just leaned that way."
Burglar Leaves Note
SAN FRANCISCO — (UPI) — A burglar took $29 worth of phonograph records, coins and a table radio from a San Francisco flat Tuesday night and left the following typewritten note for his victim:
"In all my 30 years as an honest, hardworking burglar, seldom have I came across as miserable a haul as this. You people ought to leave some cigrettes around for guests. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Meditate on this, friends: Everything which I leave behind isn't even worth stealing.
"Til later, Sydney the Burglar."
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