From Ravenna, Nebraska, on March 21, 1922, Godfrey Joseph Kadavy, M.D. (1889 to 1972), filed his “Ether-can attachment dropper” drawing (left) with the U.S. Patent Office. According to Kadavy’s filing, he designed this invention as: (1) “a novel form of closure to be secured to the discharge opening of a can for dispensing the contents [ether] of the can by drops” and (2) a “means for securing the auxiliary closure to the can top to insure a fluid-tight connection between the mouth of the can and closure.” On February 27, 1923, this self-described “Bohemian-American Cornhusker” was granted U.S. Patent 1446751. His patent design (left) was mass-produced as the “Kan Klamp” (upper right). On the back of the C-arm of each “Klamp” is stamped the date on which the patent was granted: “PATENTED / FEB.27—1923” (lower right). This was merely the first of at least five U.S. patents that inventor-physician Kadavy would be granted between 1923 and 1958. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)