Hypospray

The hypospray is a fictional version of a jet injector. Sometimes it is used as a verb "to hypospray" = "to use a hypospray on (someone/something)".

In the Star Trek scenario

In the Star Trek universe it was developed by the mid-22nd century, as it is featured in '. Many people, such as Dr. Crusher in ' and The Doctor in "", are seen to use it.

The real-life jet injector is usually applied at the top of the arm, but the fictional hypospray is sometimes applied on the neck. Presumably when used in the neck it delivers the medication intravenously or intraarterially and when used on the arm it delivers intramuscularly. The hypospray can also be applied through clothing.

The hypospray is extremely versatile as the medicine vials can be quickly swapped out from the bottom of the hypospray. As the hypospray is bloodless, it is not contaminated by use. This allows it to be used on many people until the supply of medicine runs out.

The concept of the hypospray was developed when producers on the original Star Trek series discovered that NBC's broadcast standards and practices prohibited the use of hypodermic syringes to inject medications; the needleless hypospray sidestepped this issue. [Whitfield, Stephen E., and Roddenberry, Gene, "The Making of Star Trek", Ballantine Books, 1969, ASIN B000HYXX5S; reprinted by Titan Books Ltd., 1991, ISBN 1852863633] The prop used in the original series appeared to be a modified fuel injector for a large automotive diesel engine.Fact|date=February 2007

Real-world timeline

*1937 or earlier: Jet-injecting was known of as a type of workshop accident with diesel engines' fuel injectors.
*23 November 1947: Date of airing of the "The Comic Strip Killer" episode of the radio show "The Shadow". In it a hypospray is mentioned, as working "on the basis of a high-pressure air gun. You hold it against the skin and it blasts fluid, painlessly, through the pores. The patient doesn't even feel the injection." The characters in the story were told that it was such a new device that the "first real publicity about it is in this week's "Life Magazine"."
*1956: Jack Vance's novel To Live Forever was published: in it devices called hyposprays are used as drug injection devices. [Vance, Jack. "To Live Forever", Ballantine Books, 1956.] .
*1960: A working medical jet-injector was first patented.
*1966-1969: was aired.
*18 March 1967: Date of airing of the original ' Season 1 Episode 24 ("The Train"): it mentioned the hypospray. In it, Rollin Hand (Martin Landau) tells Dr. Selby (William Schallert) to "Get the hyposprays ready." The doctor mentions "the spray will go right through his clothing and penetrate the skin." (The television show ' used an almost identical ploy to trick the antagonist of the episode "Stratagem", Episode 14 of Season 3, aired on 2 February 2004.)
**The original "" and "Star Trek" series were both made by Desilu Productions.

In the real world

For examples of a real jet injector being called a hypospray: see Web pages using "hypospray" for a real jet injector.

References

External links

* [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Hypospray Memory Alpha (Star Trek Wiki) page about the hypospray]