Cumberland Street Hospital's magnet

Is this modern art or Cumberland Street Hopital's 500-pound, $280 electric magnet? This Photo of the Week, originally published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in April 1924, shows a demonstration of the magnet's considerable power: "when plugged into an ordinary electric socket it can lift a steel door key from a hand 12 inches below." While this is an impressive display, the magnet was actually meant to extract finer pieces of steel embedded in the body, especially in the eyes. Hospital Superintendant Jacobs explained that "Steel is now used in so many ways that steel splinters are to be expected... Workmen using steel hammers, men bending over the fine steel coils and springs in watch or clock work, as well as the men working on the great steel girders in building construction are all in a position where they may find the magnet useful in an emergency..." The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that this was "the only one of its kind in any city hospital." ("Huge Hospital Magnet Lifts Key 12 Inches Away," April 19, 1924; Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History)

Cumberland Street Hospital continued to adopt up-to-date equipment for taking care of patients. In May of 1924 the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that the Cumberland Street Hospital was going to be converted into a 200-bed cancer institute by the Department of Public Welfare. The Institute aimed to treat patients with state-of-the-art methods and learn more about the disease. "The first deep theraphy [sic] X-ray machines... said to be the first of their kind in this country" were to be installed at the Brooklyn Cancer Institute and the Manhattan Cancer Institute ("To Open Old Cumberland Street Hospital as Cancer Institute; to Cost $200,000," May 27, 1924; Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History).

Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal at Brooklyn Public Library. We look forward to inviting you to CBH in the future to research in our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. In the meantime, please visit our resources page to search our collections. Questions? Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.