Signedback metal plate: 110 VOLTS 50-60 CYCLES / WATTS 200 CAT.N0. 920 / C.E.S.A. APR NO. 4418 / NATIONAL ELECTRIC INSTR. CO., INC. / L.I., N.Y. MADE IN U.S.A.;
on plastic tube: CAT NO. 0419300 / BURTON DIV / 7922 Haskell Ave / Van Neys, Ca 91406
FunctionA cautery machine is used in the process of cauterization, or the use of heat, chemicals, or electric current to burn and destroy tissues. Physicians often used cautery machines in electrosurgery to stop bleeding or to cut tissue. This particular instrument uses electricity to cauterize. It is likely that it heats the cauterizing points via electricity (although some electrocautery machines used the cauterizing points to conduct electrical current into tissues).
ProvenanceGift from Dr. Reiner Beeuwkes, Professor Emeritus, Harvard Medical School, Department of Physiology, Boston, MA. Twenty years ago he rescued this instrument from HMS, Department of Physiology.