Blauer Heinrich (spittoon)
Blauer Heinrich , an egg-shaped vessel with a lower part made of cobalt blue glass and a spring-loaded cover with a rubber seal provided with pockets, was called a spittoon for patients suffering from tuberculosis . Why he was so called is unclear. There is a private collection of medical history, Blauer Heinrich von B. Miller, on the subject of TB history. This was exhibited on the Schatzalp until 1997 and then in the Davos Local History Museum. Today it is stored in the Rhaetian Museum in Chur . Individual parts have been exhibited in various exhibitions in Dresden, Vienna, Zurich and Chur. In English one speaks of Blue Peter or Blue Henri .
The inventor
The inventor of this practical aid was Peter Dettweiler , who took over the management of the newly founded Falkenstein pulmonary hospital in the Taunus in 1876 and made a contribution there for the establishment of the lying cure . 1889, a few years after the first description of the tuberculosis bacilli by Robert Koch , he exhibited at the 8th Congress of Internal Medicine in Wiesbaden his development of vials before. Dettweiler regarded it as a "sacred duty" to make every coughing person use this simple, cheap device. It was sold for 1 Mark 50. That corresponds to the current value of 9 euros.
“The pocket bottle for coughing people” was used to catch the infectious sputum . A silver funnel for collecting the sputum is hidden under the hinged lid. The foot can be unscrewed so that the bottle can be easily rinsed and cleaned with water or a 5% carbol solution. The transparent wall allowed the level of filling to be checked visually, while the unsightly contents were concealed from view of third parties by the strong coloring of the cobalt glass. Since it had a tightly fitting inner funnel made of chrome-plated brass, it could not leak if it was not overfilled, even if it fell over with the lid open. The bottle could be emptied through a screw cap with a cork seal on the foot.
The manufacturer
The bottle was patented by Gebr. Noelle in Lüdenscheid after various other companies had tried unsuccessfully to meet Dettweiler's specifications. The special thing about the bottle was that it could be opened with one hand. The first bottles had the imperial patent number 51691 on the front, later the signature of Dr. Dettweiler used. On the lid was the text “Privy Councilor Dr. Dettweiler's pocket bottle for coughers ”.
The bottle was introduced very quickly to all pulmonary health centers in Germany and Switzerland.
The Blue Heinrich in Thomas Mann's "Magic Mountain"
In The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann of the Blue Heinrich gained its literary celebrity.
On the drive from the train station to the Berghof Sanatorium, where Hans Castorp visits his sick cousin Joachim, he can already take a look at the “flat, curly bottle made of blue glass with a metal cap”. Joachim slips it straight back into his coat pocket, with the words: “Most of us have that up here. [...]. It also has a name with us, such a nickname, very jolly. "Later, Hans Castorp learns this name from the mouth of the uneducated Ms. Stöhr:" Without overcoming, "says Thomas Mann," with a stubbornly ignorant expression, she brought the grumpy one Description "Der Blaue Heinrich" on the lips. "
gallery
Privy Councilor Dr. Dettweiler's pocket bottle for those who cough
Dettweiler's No. 1 big
Dettweiler's No. 2 small
Dettweiler's No. 2 small. Economy version with simple locks
Dettweiler's mini bottle. Extremely discreet, without a bottom cap
Dettweiler's signature embossed into the glass body for marking
Marking on the lid of Dettweiler's pocket bottles
Instructions for use for the pocket bottle for coughing people
