Medicine: Surgeon's Mike

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"Many of our best surgeons and best teachers do not have the knack of talking while working, but that may be because of the lack of proper facilities to talk directly to the class while carrying out the surgical procedure. In visiting many of the large clinics of the country, it has always been noticeable to me that the surgeon who would talk to his audience and describe the pathology, technique, etc. always had an attentive group of listeners."

So observed Dr. Rafe Chester Chaffin, assistant professor of gynecology in the College of Medical Evangelists at Los Angeles. In the current American Journal of Surgery he, a radio enthusiast, explained how he had equipped himself to talk to his classes without raising his voice and disturbing the patient. His device is a microphone mounted on a little rod, held before his mouth inside the surgeon's mask by a headband, connected to an amplifier built into a suitcase.

In case Dr. Chaffin, operating in a glass-enclosed cage, wants to say something which does not concern his students, he presses his left elbow to his side. Underneath his operating gown at that side he wears a wide, flat, brass spring, pressure on which disconnects microphone from loudspeaker.