"Alexandre Lion's incubator was patented in 1889. He was a physician in Nice, France, whose father was an inventor. (3)(11) Similar to the cost-driven motivation that permeates today's medical practices, the overriding attraction of this incubator was the reduced attention needed to operate it. With fewer trained personnel needed, cost was reduced. The Lion incubator was a high point in technology at the end of the 19th century. An automatically regulated heating system was housed in an attractive cabinet. The incubator pulled outside air into its system, adding ventilation to the traditional function of warming. A commentary in Lancet (1897) pointed out that "the main feature of this new incubator is the fact that it requires no constant and skilled care. It works automatically; both ventilation and heat are maintained without any fluctuations whatsoever . . . the only attendance necessary is that needed for feeding and washing the infants." The Lion incubator was expensive, which limited its availability. Charities and municipal government were early sources of support. Because Lion was probably as much an entrepreneur as a physician, he improvised revenue-producing "incubator charities," storefront facilities usually located on busy boulevards throughout France. He charged spectator admission, and he advertised his product widely. He did, however, receive professional endorsement from a study by the physician-general of the City of Nice in which a 72% survival rate among 185 infants was reported."
-- From "An Encapsulated History of Thermoregulation in the Neonate," by Sheldon B. Kornoes, MD, NeoReviews, Volume 5, No. 3, March 2004.
The image below shows five of the Lion Incubators in use, circa 1896, in a Paris establishment for the care of premature babies. Dr. Lion is standing by the end incubator.
Image used by permission of Wellcome Library, London.
The Lion Incubator was licensed and manufactured by Paul Altmann in Berlin and by Kny-Scheerer Co. in the US. It was widely used in exhibitions and sideshows, beginning with the Kinder-Brutanstalt ("child hatchery") at the Berlin Exposition of 1896 and the Victorian Era Exhibition at Earl's Court of 1897, followed by the Trans-Mississippi Exposition of 1898 in Omaha, Nebraska and many others in the USA.