Who is good in Sterilization History?

Autoclave and autoclaving a word and task used every day all over the world. I know auto means self and clave key - so autoclave stays for self-close = a well-closed vessel. What I would like to know: who did first use and integrate the word autoclave for steam sterilization. Was it Gruber, Pasteur, Koch or an anonymous?

Thanks for closing my gap in sterilization history. Internet did'nt help.
Josy Holdener

The first autoclave was 'Chamberland's Autoclave'. Charles Chamberland was one of Pasteur's pupils and collaborator. Chamberland invented the Autoclave in response to Pasteur's requirement of a sterilization technique that utilized temperatures higher than 100 C. This was developed between 1876 and 1880. He patterned the Autoclave after an invention of the French physicist, Deneys Papin, who in 1680 created the steam 'digester'.

Some people mistakenly refer to all sterilizers as 'autoclaves'. An autoclave is a special type of sterilizer that uses steam under pressure to sterilize items.

Regards, Pete Bobb

Some more information sterilization history. (a subject I love)

1450BC Moses wrote in the books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy the first sanitary code, purified by fire & recognised the value of boiling water

460-377BC Hippocrates poured boiling water onto surgical instruments.

130-200AD Galen boiled instruments though no mention of cleaning them. 1680AD Papin invented a pressure cooker called the Digester.

1876AD Chamberland developed the first pressure steam sterilizer and John Tyndall originated the method of practical sterilization by intermittant heating, that same year. 1881AD Robert Koch researched the disinfecting properties of steam and hot air and devised the first non-pressure flowing steam sterilizer. The major pioneer of the aseptic method of surgery was Professor Von Bergmann of Berlin (1885AD) who introduced sterilization by steam into his clinic. Amazingly Lister had little faith in this new idea. There are more unsung practicioners who developed the standards we have today, however time and space is running out for this e-mail. M McCrorie

Dear Mary

thank you for your interesting Sterilization-History addition. I never went as far back as you did - to Moses 1450BC.

Another early pioneer in Sterilization was Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799) an Italian biologist. He discovered 100 years before Pasteur, that it took 30 minutes to kill bacteria by heating them in sealed glass flasks. He also was the first human to watch microbial cell division and disproved the prevailing belief of spontaneous generation.

His investigestions into the development of microscopic life in nutrient culture solutions paved the way for the research of Louis Pasteur.

By sharing the interest of microbiology and sterilization history,
greetings from Josy Holdener