The prototype for high frequency ventilation is found in nature — the respiration of hummingbirds and insects is synchronous with the beat of their wings. In 1915 Henderson et al. (1) commented on the rapid, shallow breathing in dogs during heat polypnea: “There may easily be a gaseous exchange sufficient to support life even when tidal volume is considerably less than the dead space”. Briscoe et al. (2) confirmed Henderson’s observations, and demonstrated in a patient with a dead space of 170 ml that tidal volumes as small as 60 ml provided alveolar gas exchange. A similar principle was first applied by Jack Emerson, who called his US patent application in 1959 an “apparatus for vibrating portions of a patient’s airway”.