This article traces the development of mechanical ventilatory support methods from the use of body ventilators to tracheal cannulation to the use of noninvasive ventilatory support and airway secretion management alternatives. Although it has been known that tracheostomy tubes could be used for ventilatory support and airway secretion management since 1869, body ventilators continued to be the main methods of long-term ventilatory support in the United States, with tracheostomy performed only for patients with severe bulbar muscle dysfunction, until the late 1950s. Recent technological developments, however, have created renewed interest in noninvasive alternatives.