Anne Rosemary Chamney CEng MIMechE (16 April 1931 – 9 December 2008)[1] was a British mechanical engineer specialising in medical equipment.[2] She is best known for her invention of a novel oxygen tent which was much cheaper than existing tents, much lighter and therefore easier to transport.[2]
Early life
Anne Rosemary Chamney was born in Amersham on 16 April 1931 to Eleanor Margery Hampshire and Ronald Martin Chamney.[2][3] She had one older brother John, born in 1928.[citation needed] According to the 1911 census, her father Ronald was an engineer with the National Telephone Company[4] and held a BSc in engineering.[5] As a young child, Chamney was ambidextrous.[6] She attended an all girls school from the age of nine until she was 16.[2] She earned an MS in biomechanics at the University of Surrey[7] and a PhD in physiology which focussed on the effect of carbon monoxide during pregnancy in rats, which influenced later research into the effect of smoking on humans during pregnancy.[2]
Later she became a senior technician at University College Hospital Medical School in London where she evaluated hospital equipment. Whilst working there, in 1966 she invented of a novel oxygen tent which was much cheaper than existing tents, it was also lighter and therefore easier to transport.[11][12] The oxygen tent was published in The Lancet in 1967[13] and received international publicity, with coverage in the United States stating that her invention cost only $50, when other oxygen tents cost up to $750.[14] She credited being able to work closely with medical staff and developing clinical knowledge as being vital to the development of relevant and useful medical equipment.[7]
