The Glasgow School of Art is looking to make contact with women who were among the first to have an ultrasound scan during their pregnancy.
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The Diasonograph, designed by Dugald Cameron, was the first ultrasound machine in obstetrics to go into service. It was used in the Queen Mother’s Hospital, Yorkhill in the mid 1960s.
Between 1963 and 1968 women in Glasgow were able to have access to pioneering technology developed by Glasgow company Kelvin & Hughes Ltd and designed by the then young GSA design graduand, Dugald Cameron, who was later to become Director of the Glasgow School of Art (in the 1990’s). Dugald Cameron’s Diasonograph was the first ever ultrasound machine for pregnancy to go into production and was used in the Queen Mother’s Hospital (Yorkhill) making Glasgow the first city in the world to offer this opportunity.
As part of a major project, Ultrasonic Glasgow, which will celebrate Glasgow’s ground-breaking use of ultrasound in pregnancy, the GSA is hoping to hear from women who had a scan and staff who worked with this technology in Glasgow in the mid 1960s.
“As part of an exhibition marking the work of Professor Cameron on the first ultrasound machine for pregnancy we are keen to hear from the women who had a scan and people who worked with the equipment in the mid 1960s,”says Susan Roan, a researcher in Communication Design at The Glasgow School of Art.
“We hope to be able to record interviews with the generation women who were the very first to have access to technology which is now available to women in pregnancy across the globe.”
If you would be interested in telling the GSA about your experiences in an interview, with the possibility of your story being included as part of an exhibition about the early pioneering of ultrasound in pregnancy in Glasgow, contact Susan Roan at The Glasgow School of Art, Communication Design Staff Office, by post : Floor 1, Reid Building, 167 Renfrew Street, G3 6RQor by email ultrasoundstories@gmail.com
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For further information contact:
Lesley Booth,
07799414474
@GSofAMedia
Notes for Editors
· All personal details and data for this project will be handled sensitively and securely in accordance with The Glasgow School of Art’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Ethical Code of Practice.
· The first ever ultrasound machine for obstetrics
Arguably the most important technological development to affect the lives of women in the last 50 or so years has been diagnostic obstetrics ultrasound: being offered a scan is now a normal part of any woman’s pregnancy.
A unique and ground-breaking collaboration between experts in clinical obstetrics, engineering, electronics and industrial design created the first prototypes and production models of ultrasound scanners for routine obstetrics scanning in Glasgow hospitals.At the heart of this was a young industrial designer, Dugald Cameron.
The Glasgow School of Art has been in the forefront of design in manufacturing for over 170 years. It was established as one of the government technical schools to help local industry improve products. It was whilst he was in his final year as an Industrial Design student that Dugald Cameron applied design to technology to help create the first ever ultrasound machine for use in diagnostic obstetrics. In so doing he was fulfilling the original purpose of the GSA, and this continues today in innovations such as the definitive 3D Human Anatomy being pioneered in the GSA’s School of Simulation and Visualisation.
· Dugald Cameron’s ground-breaking work on the ultrasound machine is featured in, MadeAtUnia new campaign aimed at bringing to life the impact of universities up and down the UK on people, lives and communities.