Discovery
Penicillin was originally discovered by a French medical student, Ernest Duchesne in 1896. But was then re-discovered by a British bacteriologist named Alexander Fleming in 1929. He was doing research when he noticed a culture of bacteria had mold growing next to it on pitre dish. He looked at the line between the mold and bacteria and it seemed that the bacteria were denaturing (dying). He left the dish un-tampered in his lab for a few weeks and came back to see that the bacteria was completely gone! Fleming published his findings and said this mold could have serious value if in quantity.Ten years later in 1939 another British man named Dr. Howard Florey and a group of other scientists at Oxford University began to do extensive research on Penicillin's ability to kill bacteria and cure diseases. But they had to move to America to continue their research. They researched tirelessly for a couple years and developed what they called "a vat" where they produced a large group of penicillin inside of a cantaloupe. Shortly thereafter one of the American mold experts named Andrew J. Moyer find a way to produce penicillin 10 times more efficiently. It was produced so much that, in 1943, there was a high enough amount to finally start treating people with it and the first to be clinically treated were soldiers from the famous D-day battle in World War II. On May 25, 1948 Andrew J Moyer was granted a patent for a method of mass production of penicillin. Penicillin is still very commonly used in hospitals all over the world.