Turn on the Light: The Evolution of Aerobiology and Airborne Disease Studies in the United States Before Aerosols, 1930-1955
GERARD FITZGERALD,
Independent Scholar Abstract Number: 495
Working Group: History of Aerosol Science
AbstractResearch and debate during the first year of the pandemic in the United States about the possible airborne spread of COVID-19 by either droplet nuclei or aerosols can be historically contextualized by examining the evolution of research on the airborne spread of disease by scientists, engineers and physicians that began during the interwar period to create the discipline of aerobiology. This paper examines the research of Professor William Firth Wells, whose work at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Airborne Disease Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. In particular, his research into the biophysical aspects of small droplets of dried material that traveled through the air that he christened droplet nuclei in 1934. Wells’ research was focused on not only understanding the dynamics of the spread of airborne infection, but in also trying to create the technological means to control or prevent the spread of infectious airborne bacteria and viruses. The American research program in aerobiology, which changed course in part during World War II, illustrates the importance of understanding the development of biology and biomedicine during a transformative period in American history.