Pocket Surgical Kit, Lockheed Sirius "Tingmissartoq", Lindbergh

This pocket surgical kit was among the supplies Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, took on their 1931 flight to the Orient and 1933 survey flights across the North and South Atlantic. Since they were traveling over vast expanses of uninhabited territory where medical attention would be hard to find, even a small injury could have been fatal. Always meticulous planners, Charles and Anne considered this and took a surgical kit to treat small wounds.In December 1933, during the latter part of their survey flights around the Atlantic, the Lindberghs made several unsuccessful takeoff attempts for their flight from Africa to South America as calm winds and seas would not allow their heavily loaded plane to rise. This surgical kit was among the supplies they removed and shipped home from Bathurst, Gambia so they could lighten their load and continue.Since the Lindberghs were planning to fly up the Amazon River Basin after reaching South America, there was at least one item in the surgical kit they perhaps should have kept: a snake-bite treatment device (the white cartridge at the bottom of the surgical kit). On one end of this handy device was a scalpel for opening the wound and draining the poisoned blood, and on the other end was a supply of potassium permanganate crystals for disinfecting the wound.