Hermann Adolph Wülfing-Lüer

Biography

• Born on March 14, 1836 in Barmen, Westphalia
• 1867 – Hermann married Jeanne Amélie Lüer (daughter of Amatus Lüer)
• 1899 – Barbier prize. Full prize (2,000F) not awarded, but Luer received a 300F ‘encouragement’ award for his syringe for hypodermic injections
• Died on February 1, 1910 in Paris

I take pleasure in expressing my appreciation of the care given by the late Wulfing-Luer of Paris to the making of almost all of the surgical instruments originally purchased for The Johns Hopkins Hospital and designed by the author.

‘The Operative- Story of Goitre‘. William S. Halstead 1920

History of the Luer syringe

Georges Guillaume Amatus Lüer (1802-1883) (d’instruments de chirurgie, chevalier de la légion d’honneur) was born in Germany and traveled to Paris in 1834. He worked briefly with Swiss-born French surgical instrument maker Joseph-Frédéric-Benoît Charrière (1803-1876) and set up up surgical instrument store ‘Maison Lüer, sur la Place de l’École de Médecine’ in 1837. He received a medal in the 1st class after exhibiting in the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. Chevalier de la légion d’honneur on January 25, 1863

Hermann Adolph Wülfing married Jeanne Amélie Lüer (daughter of Amatus Lüer) in 1867. Hermann worked on the business side of the factory, and Jeanne on the creative side and in the factory

Jeanne, helped by a glassblower named Fournier, developed a ‘two piece graduated, all-glass sterilizable syringe with a tight-fitting ground glass barrel’.

Hermann filed multiple patents to protect the invention between 1895-1897.

• Hermann Adolph Wülfing-Lüer. FR3031E; Nouveau système de seringue uniquement en verre et destinée spécialement aux injections aseptiques. French patent, 1894
• Hermann Adolph Wülfing-Lüer. US583382; Improvements in Syringes. US patent, 1896
• Hermann Adolph Wülfing-Lüer. US772450A; US patent, 1904

The Lüer’s met with Maxwell W. Becton and Fairleigh S. Dickinson who purchased the Lüer syringe and set up the Becton Dickinson (BD) surgical equipment company in New Jersey, USA.

Dickinson patented the Luer-lok in 1925, a steel fitting that included the tapered tube at its centre to allow a needle to be locked in place securely with a single twist.[The BD Yale Luer-Lok Syringe]

• Fairleigh S Dickinson. US723588A; Hypodermic syringe. US patent, 1901
• Fairleigh S Dickinson. US1142682A; US1130493A; Syringe. US patent, 1914
• Fairleigh S Dickinson. US1742497; Syringe. US patent, 1925
• Fairleigh S Dickinson. US1793068; Hypodermic syringe and needle therefor. US patent, 1931
• Fairleigh S Dickinson. US2037768A; Hypodermic syringe needle hub. US patent, 1934

Medical Eponyms

• Lüer syringe
• Lüer taper
• Lüer-Lok

Publications

• Wulfing-Lüer H. Chirurgie, médecine, hygiène et sciences. Prix-courant de la maison a Lüer. Paris, 1888
• Wulfing-Lüer H. Polypotome laryugien. Bulletins et mémoires de la société française d’otologie, de laryngologie et de rhinologie 1888; 5(1): 56-57
• Wulfing-Lüer H. Catalogue spécial ophtalmologie. 1909. Including images of Seringues pour injections hypodermiques; d’huile grise; aiguilles hypodermiques; de paraffine; de sérum artificiel; boîte boilleur; pour lavages and pour lavage de la chambre antérieure

References

Biography

• Hennings P. Hermann Adolph Wülfing-Lüer (1836 – 1909). Geneanet
• Lüer Family Grave: [Overview] [Image] [Family Luer Detail/translation]
• Instruments de chirurgie. Exposition universelle en Paris, France. 1900: 464-466
• Bibliography. Wulfing-Lüer, H. WorldCat Identities

Eponymous references

• Bruns, Victor von. Arznei-Operationen oder Darstellung sämmtlicher Methoden der manuellen Application von Arzneistoffen : Mit 31 Abbildungen in Holzschnitt Tübingen, 1869
• Malassez M. Seringue toute en verre de M Wulfing-Luer. Comptes rendus des séances de la Société de biologie et de ses filiales 1894; 46: 689-690
• Milamed DR, Brown K, Murphy E. Lüer’s lure: from an international standards perspective. Anesthesiology. 2012 Dec;117(6):1358-63.
• Sella A. Lüer’s syringe: An innovation that launched a family empire. Chemistry World, 2012
• Brown J. The Life and Death of the Luer. MDDI, 2012
• Craig R. A history of syringes and needles. 2018
• Myers K. A history of injection treatments – I the syringe. Phlebology. 2019 Jun;34(5):294-302
• Wiepking F, Van Zundert A, Martin JP, Cazalaà JB, Buttner R. The all-glass Lüer syringe: Historical facts around concepts, introduction and patent Anaesth Crit Care Pain Med. 2021 Aug;40(4):100921.