The Medical Ambulance

The Ambulance, the Early Days

It has been reputed that the term ambulance has been around at lest since the Crusades in the 11th Century.  The Knights of St. John acted as the first “EMT’s”, being charged with the responsibility of providing an ambulance service to the wounded on the battlefield.
Since those early days of “ambulatory” transport, we now have ambulances that come in many forms, cars, trucks, vans, boats, helicopters, and aircraft.  Like most modern miracles, it was a long transition from horse drawn carts, thru electric, steam, and gasoline powered vehicles.

The first “motorized” version of the ambulance began with the acquisition of an electric ambulance by the Michael Reese Hospital in 1899 in Chicago, Illinois.  Proudly built by the F. R. Wood & Son Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, it weighed in at a beastly two tons.  It’s four cylinder motor powered it up to a top speed of 13 mph, forward, or if need be, 6mph in reverse!  It featured 3” thick solid rubber tires, to "cushion" the ride  of the patient.

The motorized ambulance was pretty much here to stay when the Commissioner of Public Charities of New York City declared in 1911: “It may be confidently asserted that the power ambulance, because of its marked efficiency, and comfort has come to stay.  A very important consideration is the fact that the use of the automobile ambulance in place of the horse ambulance improves the sanitary condition of the hospital, by doing away to a great extent with the nuisance of the stable, including the pest of flies ordinarily found there.”

And so it was, in the early days of the medical ambulance………