Tim Sandle has traced the history ofcleanrooms in two part feature. Part 1 covers the early concept of clean
spaces, as required for surgery, and traces these to developments immediately
post-war. Part 2 will address the coming of modern cleanroom designs for
pharmaceuticals and healthcare.
The abstract reads:
“This article discusses the development
and progress of cleanrooms and describes the significant historical milestones,
taking the eighteenth century concept of a ‘clean space’ to the twenty-first
century cleanroom. The history of cleanrooms is intimately entwined with two strands
of technological development: medicine and military. The medical origins can be
traced back to the attempts to create a clean environment, first for field
surgery and later for operating theatres; whilst the military applications stem
from attempts to assemble precision engineered mechanisms in environments where
dust particles posed a risk to the device mechanics. Further on, developments
with the atomic power, spacecraft and electronics spurred technological
advances in cleanrooms, followed by the later application of cleanrooms in the
pharmaceutical industry, led to the modern cleanroom technology of the
twenty-first century.
This article is in two parts. Part one
looks at the concept of clean air and the development of cleanrooms up until
the 1960s. Part 2 addresses the developments since the 1970s and the driver for
a unified, international cleanroom standard.”
The reference is:
Sandle, T. (2016) The development of
cleanrooms: an historical review. Part 1: From civil war to safe surgical practice,
The Journal – Institute of Science &
Technology, Autumn 2016, pp41-47 (ISSN 2040-1868)
Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle