prehistoric times in line with the agrarian endeavours and
exploits of the Egyptian and Chinese dynasties. Egyptians
before the time of Moses were able to design and
construct hatcheries with a capacity of ninety thousand
birds. A few of these hatcheries are still operative, and
even as late as the 1950s, were producing almost 90% of
all the chicks in Egypt.
The Chinese by the year 1,000 B.C. had also devised two
successful methods of hatching eggs which resulted in
high yields. The Greeks in pre-historic times also
produced hatcheries as described in detail in the works of
Aristotle by utilizing rotten manure. It can be said that
modern designs of incubators began in the 16th century
when Cornelis Drebbel of Holland together with his
contemporary; J. Kepler around 1624 developed an
automatic temperature control system for a furnace. This
was motivated by his belief that base metals could be
turned to gold by holding them at a precise constant
temperature for long periods of time. He also used this
temperature regulator in an incubator for hatching
chickens. Temperature regulators were studied by J.J.
Becher in 1680, and used again in an incubator by the
Prince de Conti and R.-A.F. de Réaumur in 1754. The
"sentinel register" was developed in America by W. Henry
around 1771. He suggested its use in chemical furnaces, in
the manufacture of steel and porcelain, as well as in the
temperature control of the hospital. It was not until 1777,
however, that a temperature regulator suitable for
industrial use was developed by Bonnemain, who used it
for an incubator. His device was later installed on the
furnace of a hot-water heating plant.
The first successful commercial machine was the hot
water incubator made by Hearson in 1881. In 1895 Cypher
put his 20,000 duck egg model on the market. The first allelectric
automated machine did not appear until 1922