Inventions and Inventors Volume 1 - Online Public Access Catalog

824 / Ultrasound
dar” (radio detecting and ranging), had military implications. This vital
technology was classified as a military secret and was kept hidden
until after the war.
An Alternative to X Rays
Ian Donald
Ian Donald was born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1910 and educated
in Edinburgh until he was twenty, when he moved to
South Africa with his parents. He graduated with a bachelor of
arts degree from Diocesan College, Cape Town, and then moved
to London to study medicine, graduating from the University of
London in 1937. During World War II he served as a medical officer
in the Royal Air Force and received a medal for rescuing flyers
from a burning airplane. After the war he began his long
teaching career in medicine, first at St. Thomas Hospital Medical
School and then as the Regius Professor of Midwifery at Glasgow
University. His specialties were obstetrics and gynecology.
While at Glasgow he accomplished his pioneering work
with diagnostic ultrasound technology, but he also championed
laparoscopy, breast feeding, and the preservation of membranes
during the delivery of babies. In addition to his teaching
duties and medical practice he wrote a widely used textbook,
oversaw the building of the Queen Mother’s Hospital in Glasgow,
and campaigned against England’s 1967 Abortion Act.
His expertise with ultrasound came to his own rescue after
he had cardiac surgery in the 1960’s. He diagnosed himself as
having internal bleeding from a broken blood vessel. The cardiologists
taking care of him were skeptical until an ultrasound
proved him right. Widely honored among physicians, he died
in England in 1987.
Ian Donald’s interest in engineering and the principles of
sound waves began when he was a schoolboy. Later, while he was
in the British Royal Air Force, he continued and maintained his
enthusiasm by observing the development of the anti-U-boat
warfare efforts. He went to medical school after World War II and
began a career in obstetrics. By the early 1950’s, Donald had em-