A hypospray is a fictional version of a jet injector. Sometimes it is used as a verb, "to hypospray", meaning "to use a hypospray on ". The concept of the hypospray was developed when producers on the original series discovered that NBC's broadcast standards and practices prohibited the use of hypodermic syringes to inject medications; the needleless hypospray sidestepped this issue. The prop used in the original series appeared to be a modified fuel injector for a large automotive diesel engine, similar to the engines which jet injectors were derived from.
In the ''Star Trek'' universe
In the Star Trek universe, the hypospray was developed by the mid-22nd century, as it is featured in '. Many people, such as Dr. Crusher in ', and The Doctor in , are seen to use it. The real-life jet injector is usually applied at the top of the arm, but the fictional hypospray is sometimes applied on the neck. Presumably when used in the neck it delivers the medication intravenously or intra-arterially and when used on the arm it delivers intramuscularly. The hypospray can also be applied through clothing. The hypospray is extremely versatile as the medicine vials can be quickly swapped out from the bottom of the hypospray. As the hypospray is bloodless, it is not contaminated by use. This allows it to be used on many people until the supply of medicine runs out.
Real-world timeline
19th century: Workmen in France had accidental jet injections with high-powered grease guns
1937 or earlier: Jet-injecting was known of as a type of workshop accident with diesel engines' fuel injectors.
1947: First known use of the word "hypospray" for a real jet injector.
23 November 1947: "The Comic Strip Killer" episode of the radio showThe Shadow aired. In it, a hypospray is mentioned, as working "on the basis of a high-pressure air gun. You hold it against the skin and it blasts fluid, painlessly, through the pores. The patient doesn't even feel the injection." The characters in the story were told that it was such a new device that the "first real publicity about it is in this week's Life Magazine".
1956: Jack Vance's novel To Live Forever was published: in it, devices called hyposprays are used as drug injection devices.
1957: Isaac Asimov's novel The Naked Sun mentions a "high-pressure needle jet" as an alternative to hypodermic needles.
1960: A real working medical jet-injector was first patented - MadaJet.
1965: A "hypospray" was mentioned in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. universe book, The Dagger Affair
1966: ' started airing, but real jet-injectors were not yet in common use.
18 March 1967: The ' Season 1 Episode 24 aired, mentioning the hypospray. In it, Rollin Hand tells Dr. Selby to "Get the hyposprays ready." The doctor mentions "the spray will go right through his clothing and penetrate the skin."
2 February 2004: The television show' Episode 14 of Season 3 aired. It used an almost identical ploy as that used in the Mission: Impossible episode 'The Train' to trick the antagonist of the episode.
* Both the original ' and Star Trek series were made by Desilu Productions.
For examples of a real jet injector being called a hypospray: see. Scientists at MIT developed a needle-free injection system in 2012. High pressure air injectors have been used by the military as a common initial entry vaccination method since at least the mid 1980s. They were linked to a bulk drug supply and a sterilized high pressure air supply. Far from painless, they pushed in a portion of skin similar to the action of a needle, instead of the fiction of seeping slowly through the pores. Unlike a needle, the hole did not close itself, and usually left a small bleeding wound. After reducing the size of the injector from that of a refrigerator to the size of an electric razor, MIT-based startup Portal Instruments received funding from Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda in 2017 to develop and commercialize a needle-free hand-held injection device called PRIME. Loaded with a single-use disposable vessel, this device injects a hair thin stream at about 200 meters per second to penetrate skin and tissue with reportedly less pain than needles.
