RT Journal
A1 Rutkow IM
T1 GEorge tiemann and the american surgical instrument trade in the preantiseptic era
JF Archives of Surgery
JO Archives of Surgery
YR 1998
FD March 1
VO 133
IS 3
SP 338
OP 338
DO 10-1001/pubs.Arch Surg.-ISSN-0004-0010-133-3-ssh0398
UL http://dx.doi.org/10-1001/pubs.Arch Surg.-ISSN-0004-0010-133-3-ssh0398
AB 
IN THE 1820s, AN INDIGENOUS, albeit small, surgical instrument industry came into existence in Boston, Mass, New York City, and Philadelphia, Pa. At that time, various artisans and cutlers, most of them recent immigrants from Europe, began to advertise themselves as surgical instrument fabricators. Despite the emergence of this fledgling domestic trade, medical and surgical practitioners influenced by long-standing English and French traditions still preferred foreign-made instruments, deeming them generally better in design and workmanship. This preference for foreign surgical implements waned only when American firms demonstrated an ability to produce tools of equal quality. This occurred in the 1840s and 1850s, when the likes of the German immigrant George Tiemann (1795-1868) and the English artisan William Goulding (born 1805) were at the zenith of their creative skills in New York City.