Born in Alsace, France, and trained in Berlin, Dr. Couney began his work when premature babies were pretty much expected to die. He displayed incubators developed by his mentors at the Berlin Exposition of 1896, and though they caught on in Europe, acceptance was slower in the United States.
Using babies from New York hospitals that lacked the facilities to care for them, Dr. Couney mounted a display at Luna Park, a Coney Island amusement park, in 1903, soon adding another at a second Coney Island park, Dreamland.
The babies were lined up under heaters and they breathed filtered air. Few of them weighed more than three pounds. They shared the Boardwalk there on Coney Island with Violetta the Armless Legless Wonder, Princess WeeWee, Ajax the Sword-Swallower and all the rest. From 1903 until the early 1940's, premature infants in incubators were part of the carnival.
http://www.shorpy.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12/nyregion/12coney.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=incubators%20coney%20island%20babies&st=cse&oref=slogin
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