Vinyl ether was first prepared in 1887 by Semmler from its sulfur substituted analogue, divinyl sulfide (obtained from the essential oil of Allium ursinum L.), by reaction with silver oxide.

[3] As an anesthetic ethylene has many favorable properties, although its very low potency often requires hypoxic conditions to achieve full anesthesia.

[4] Solely guided by predictions based upon structure, Leake pursued the usage of vinyl ether as an inhalation anesthetic.

[5] As vinyl ether was unknown in its pure form, Leake approached organic chemists at Berkeley asking them to synthesize this novel anesthetic.

[6] Using samples received from Princeton, in 1930, Leake and fellow researcher Mei-Yu Chen published a brief study characterizing the anesthetic effects of vinyl ether upon mice.

[3] This invitation was accepted; in 1933 Samuel Gelfan and Irving Bell of the University of Alberta published the first human trials of vinyl ether.

[5] Although, according to Leake, anesthesiologist Mary Botsford at the University of California was the first to clinically administer vinyl ether for a hysterectomy in early 1932.

[3] Vinyl ether is a rather unstable compound which with exposure to light or acid decomposes to acetaldehyde and polymerizes into a glassy solid.

[8] The recovery from vinyl ether is rapid with only rare cases of post operative nausea and vomiting, although headache after anesthesia sometimes occurs.

While anesthetic machines were numerous during the years of vinyl ether's popularity, the simplistic ‘open drop technique’ also maintained its prevalence.

Anesthetic machines of the time could suitably contain vinyl ether's potency, however, via the open drop technique smooth anesthesia for long procedures was hard to sustain.

[10] Further aggravating this problem, warm temperatures increase the volatility of vinyl ether making it even harder to regulate via the open drop technique.