The American vaporator, from Chicago, is a compact vapour inhaler for the treatment of catarrh, colds, asthma and hay fever.
It was supplied with a small bottle of inhalant for periodically dripping into the device. It appears to be of late 19th or early 20th century manufacture.
Also pictured here is an ‘Improved Inspirator’ of similar design - understood to be made of gutta percha. This particular version is inscribed ‘patent applied for’ whereas later models bear a patent date of 1908.
