CHAPTER 4: No Springs, Honest Weight
Allen DeVilbiss attended medical school after serving in the Civil War, and upon graduation opened a medical practice in Toledo specializing in nose and throat ailments. In his practice, DeVilbiss realized the discomfort produced by applying medicine to the throat with a cotton swab, so he began experimenting with atomizers—a device that used a bottle of medicine, a tube, a squeezable ball to push air through the medicine and tube, and an adjustable spraying tip. DeVilbiss’s son, Thomas, joined the company and developed a perfume atomizer, which quickly became the company’s biggest selling product. Later the company specialized in paint sprayers. [chapter summary]