Heat sterilization (swan-neck flask and autoclave)
Esterilización por calor (matraz de cuello de cisne y autoclave)
- Date
- 1861-1879 · confidence medium
- Place
- Paris, France
- Credited to
- Louis Pasteur (1861); Charles Chamberland (autoclave, 1879)
- People
- 👤 Charles Chamberland1851–1908👤 Louis Pasteur1822–1895
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Pasteur demonstrated that broth boiled in a swan-neck flask remains sterile indefinitely, disproving spontaneous generation; Chamberland designed the pressure autoclave that sterilises instruments and culture media.
The autoclave (1879) falls outside the strict 1750-1870 range, but the principle of experimental sterilisation dates from 1861.
What it led to
- Modern surgical asepsis
- Pure-culture microbiology
- The sterile canning and pharmaceutical industries
Built on
- Steam digester (pressure cooker)1679
- Spallanzani's heat sterilization experiments1765
- Canning (Appert method and tin can)1804-1810
- Germ theory (Pasteur)1857-1865
- Germ theory and pasteurization1857-1865
- Denis Papin's pressure cooker (1679)
- Appert's canning
Made possible
- Hospital autoclave
- Koch's bacterial culture
- Chamberland filter