An improved anaerobe jar

Our plain-English summary of An improved anaerobe jar, by J.H. Brown (The Journal of Experimental Medicine, 1921).

The study

• Author: J.H. Brown
• Journal: The Journal of Experimental Medicine
• Published: 1921;33(6):677-81
• Cited by: 21 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

There has been described a modification of the anaerobe jars of McIntosh and Fildes and of Smillie in which the oxygen is consumed by combustion with hydrogen under the catalytic action of platinized or palladinized asbestos. The special advantages of the apparatus described reside in its greater safety and in the fact that the catalyzer is heated electrically after the jar is closed and may be reheated at any time during incubation without opening the jar.

In plain English

This 1921 article is not a study of asbestos and health. It described a piece of laboratory equipment, an anaerobe jar, used to grow bacteria that need an oxygen-free environment. Asbestos appeared only as a material. Platinized or palladinized asbestos served as a catalyst on which hydrogen burned up the oxygen in the jar. The author modified earlier jars by McIntosh and Fildes and by Smillie. In this version the asbestos was wrapped in a coil of fine nichrome wire that was heated by electric current after the jar was closed. The coil was fully enclosed in copper wire gauze, following the principle of the Davy safety lamp, to prevent explosions. The author reported that a number of these jars had been in use for several months with no explosion accidents and that the coils showed no deterioration. Whenever oxygen-free conditions were not reached, the cause was small leaks in the stopper or stop-cock. The author concluded that the apparatus was safer and could be reheated during incubation without opening the jar. No people or animals were studied.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Description of a laboratory apparatus (a modified anaerobe jar for growing anaerobic bacteria); not a health study
• Who was studied: No people or animals were studied; the article reports on a number of jars and coils built by the author and used for several months in a laboratory at The Rockefeller Institute, Princeton
• Exposure: No asbestos exposure was studied. Platinized or palladinized asbestos was used as a catalyst inside the jar, wrapped in a coil of fine nichrome wire heated electrically
• Main results:
  • The author reported no accidents due to explosion with the jars described, which enclosed the asbestos and wire coil in a copper wire screen
  • Whenever fully oxygen-free conditions were not achieved, the author attributed the failure to small leaks in the stopper or stop-cock
  • The coils showed no deterioration with use or age
  • Hydrogen was run in for 20 or 30 minutes, and the coil could be heated again at any time during incubation to consume remaining oxygen
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the apparatus's special advantages were greater safety and the fact that the catalyst is heated electrically after the jar is closed and can be reheated during incubation without opening the jar
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author noted that leaks are likely to develop over time around the stopper, the wires or the stop-cock, so cement or sealing wax should be applied

Related studies

• Microbe-Mineral Interactions between Asbestos and Thermophilic Chemolithoautotrophic Anaerobes — J.K. Choi, R. Vigliaturo, et al. (2023)
• A Subset of Mesotheliomas With Improved Survival Occurring in Carriers of BAP1 and Other Germline Mutations — S. Pastorino, Y. Yoshikawa, et al. (2018)
• High-intensity statins are associated with improved clinical activity of PD-1 inhibitors in malignant pleural mesothelioma and advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients — L. Cantini, F. Pecci, et al. (2021)
• DREM 2.0: Improved reconstruction of dynamic regulatory networks from time-series expression data — M.H. Schulz, W.E. Devanny, et al. (2012)
• Improved Outcomes with Modern Lung-Sparing Trimodality Therapy in Patients with Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma — F. Shaikh, M.G. Zauderer, et al. (2017)
• Technical note: improved methodology for analyses of acid detergent fiber and acid detergent lignin — E. Raffrenato, M.E. Van Amburgh (2011)

Browse more research in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, or return to medical research.