The history of fume hoods

Fume hoods are essential equipment in almost all laboratories, from teaching LABS to research LABS to industrial LABS. Fume hoods remove these substances safely from the immediate working environment, avoiding the possibility of personnel being exposed to harmful or toxic fumes, vapors, or dust. Fume hoods are also used to protect samples from the external environment.

Fume hoods may be ducted or recycled. Both types of work allow air to be inhaled from the front (open) side of the fume hood and then expelled from the building or filtered to make it safe and recycled back into the room.







Ventilation has been required in the laboratory since the early days of chemical research. The obvious solution to this problem is to use local smokestacks to expel harmful gases. Fume hoods have been used in LABS for generations. In fact, some historians credit the first fume hood to ThomasJefferson or later ThomasEdison, both of whom are said to have used the natural ventilation of fireplaces and smoke ducts to expel unwanted steam from experiments. But JosephPriestly created the first laboratory chemical exhaust hood in 1790. With the introduction of electricity and electrical engineering, the invention of the first blower motor paved the way for today's fume cupboards. In 1923, the university of Leeds installed the first ducted fume hood.