Coupling Hoses then Coupling Pierrots with Pirouettes: William B. Kilbourne Peddles “Pain Stop” from Auburn, Maine

In 1877, William Bates Kilbourne (1850 to 1924) of Auburn, Maine, was granted United States Patent No. 189,941 for coupling threaded hoses. A dozen years later, Kilbourne ’s trade card advertised his namesake “Pain Stop” by coupling the image of a melancholic clown, the face-painted Pierrot, with the pirouetting Columbina (upper image). The clown was forever losing his love interest, Columbina, to the unpictured trickster, Harlequin. Although Kilbourne ’s panacea was “good for internal use in small doses, and excellent for external use,” could even “Pain Stop” relieve Pierrot’s pain? (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)
Source: Anesthesiology - Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: research