Anesthetic apparatus, England, 1880-1910. Inhaling anesthetics was the preferred way of numbing a patient before painful surgical operations. Joseph Thomas Clover (1825-82) used both nitrous oxide and ether to anesthetize his patients. He used nitrous oxide first as it was a more pleasant experience for the patient and then prolonged the anesthetic with ether. The patient inhaled the vapors through the face mask. Clover claimed that his apparatus, invented between 1874 and 1876, quickly anesthetized patients, was good value for money, and could control the dosage of anesthetic easily.