<P> A breast pump is a mechanical device that lactating women use to extract milk from their breasts . They may be manual devices powered by hand or foot movements or electrical devices powered by batteries or electricity from the grid . Breast pumps, like lactation rooms, are most common in the United States . </P> <P> On June 20, 1854, the United States Patent Office issued Patent No. 11,135 to O.H. Needham for a breast pump . Scientific American (1863) credits L.O. Colbin as the inventor and patent applicant of a breast pump . In 1921 - 23, engineer and chess master Edward Lasker produced a mechanical breast pump that imitated an infant's sucking action and was regarded by physicians as a marked improvement on existing hand - operated breast pumps, which failed to remove all the milk from the breast . The U.S. Patent Office issued U.S. Patent 1,644,257 for Lasker's breast pump . In 1956 Einar Egnell published his groundbreaking work, "Viewpoints on what happens mechanically in the female breast during various methods of milk collection". This article provided insight into the technical aspects of milk extraction from the breast . Many Egnell SMB breast pumps designed through this research are still in operation over 50 years after publication . </P> <P> Archaeologists working at a glass factory site in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, excavated a 19th - century breast pipe that matches breast pumping instruments in period advertisements . </P>

When was the first electric breast pump invented