[Comic] How Did Experiments Work a Hundred Years Ago?

How Did Experiments Work a Hundred Years Ago?

It’s not that laboratory instruments a hundred years ago couldn’t display or record measurements. Even then, scientists had a variety of ways to record experimental data.

Some instruments used a moving needle or pen to trace lines directly onto paper. Electrical signals could also be recorded photographically by capturing the movement of a galvanometer.

According to a 1936 publication by the U.S. National Bureau of Standards (NBS), instruments that continuously recorded measurements such as temperature, pressure, and voltage in ink on paper were already widely used.

So in older laboratories, researchers were generally more familiar with machines that recorded physical movement for people to interpret than with machines that simply displayed a numerical result.

Sources

Waters, C. E. (1936). Inks for recording instruments. Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards, 17, 651–656.

Science Museum Group. (n.d.). Boulitte electrocardiograph. Science Museum Group Collection.