Thomas Edison invented the gas pressure regulator that we still use, initially for this specific gas. To think that carbonated beverages, medical gas and welding all come from this is kind of cool, even more so due to the design being mostly unchanged to this day. He used to 'study break' with laughing gas. I think that might be the most interesting of his inventions and it may be one of the few still in use in the same form.

The article mentions childbirth: my mum, an MD, tells me that as late as the mid 1960s nitrous was the only option provided, in Australia at least.

I used to go to a dentist who had a heavy hand on the nitrous. Not enough to make you giggle and sing (how could he then work in your mouth) but enough to get me really zonked, though not enough to have residual excitement as described by the author. He later sold his practice and the new dentist was able to administer just enough that I didn't care that she was poking in my mouth but no other effects. Which, TTTT, is what I prefer.