Historical Timeline

9th century: The Iraqi/Egyptian surgeon Ammar ibn 'Ali al-Mawsili' technically invented the first such syringe in the 9th century using a hollow glass tube and suction to remove cataracts from patients' eyes, a practice that remained in use up until at least the 13th century and which came into renewed use in the 20th century.

c. 1650: Blaise Pascal invented a syringe (not necessarily hypodermic) as an application of what is now called Pascal's law.

1760: Forms of intravenous injection and infusion began.

1853: Charles Gabriel Pravaz and Alexander Wood first developed a medical hypodermic syringe with a needle fine enough to pierce the skin.

1956: New Zealand pharmacist and inventor Colin Murdoch granted New Zealand and Australian patents for a disposable plastic syringe.

1974: First US patent for a plastic disposable syringe received by African American inventor, Phil Brooks, U.S. patent #3,802,434 received on April 9, 1974.