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Instruments

The solution only works if you understand the context.

—Deb A. Niemeier

 

The artists in Sensing Change use their tools of choice—whether paintbrushes, video cameras, or mixed materials—to interpret and explore the environment around them. And scientists adapt existing instrumentation and create their own tools to measure the invisible particulates and molecules in our breathable atmosphere worldwide. 

Our ability to “sense” change has a long history, and the history of people developing tools to help them make observations and discover new questions and answers about the environment is nearly as long. From water to soil to air, the range of information available to us—if we have the right tools—is astonishing. The tools and instruments that developed from the efforts of curious individuals have given us new insights into just how our environment changes around us and what types of data are findable and knowable. Think of the numerous news stories and charts showing us how temperature, rainfall, and the concentration of CO2 in our environment have changed. Behind these everyday bits of information are tools and people hard at work.

What we consider to be our modern environment is an incredibly complex web of processes and connections. Throughout the years instruments have evolved, new questions have arisen, and curiosity has continued to push us to see the environment in new ways. 

Learn more about the people, technology, and experiments that have helped us get a better look at the complex processes and systems of our environment. These objects, instruments, and papers are part of our wide-ranging collections related to the history of science. Many of them are currently on display in our permanent exhibition. 

 

Sensing Change: Instruments
Detail of the Beckman HC/CO tester. Courtesy of Beckman Coulter Heritage Council
Beckman HC/CO Tester, Beckman Instruments
Research

The Beckman HC/CO tester was an early example of an instrument used to measure the levels of certain chemicals in car exhaust.

Clara Esther Hartley lab notes. Special Collections, the Institute
Clara Esther Hartley Lab Notes
Research

The journal of high-school student Clara Hartley, written in 1896, shows how testing of water just a walk away from home could be done.

Papers of Edward C. Dunlop, 1943.
Edward C. Dunlop Water Analysis, Manhattan Project
Research

Dunlop was a chemist who spent over 39 years with DuPont, and during World War II, he was part of the Manhattan Project. In 1943 he began a series of tests on the untreated water of the Columbia River.

Electron Capture Detector, 1958. The Institute Collections. Courtesy of James E. Lovelock.
James Lovelock's Electron Capture Detector
Research

It fits in the palm of your hand and has the ability to detect invisible particulates in the air. The electron capture detector (ECD) was created by James Lovelock, who built the prototype at his kitchen table.

Millipore portable water-testing kit. The Institute Collections. Photo by Conrad Erb
Field Water Testing and Analysis Instruments
Research

The Millipore portable water-testing kit and the Ocean Optics S-2000 spectrometer are examples of how miniaturization allows researchers both to test and to analyze worldwide.

Hach Classroom Drinking-Water Testing Kit.
Hach Classroom Drinking Water Kit
Research

The Hach Company was a driving force behind making water-analysis tests that were easy to use. To this day they are used in classrooms to teach science and test local water.

Horiba pH meter. The Institute Collections. Photo by Gregory Tobias
Horiba-Mexa 200 CO Analyzer
Research

The Horiba Mexa-200 is a prime example of how an instrument can be modified for different purposes and how the demands of current and potential users can lead to important changes in instrument features.

Liston-Becker Model 28 Exhaust Gas Analyzer, ca. 1956.
Liston-Becker Model 28 Exhaust Gas Analyzer
Research

By the 1950s episodes of smog around the country had prompted government action and scientific study, and necessitated the invention of a capable instrument to measure automobile emissions.

Model 700 Dual-Column Gas Chromatograph, the Institute Collections
Model 700 Dual-Column Gas Chromatograph
Research

Chromatographs separate the chemical components of a mixture. Gas chromatography is used specifically to separate and analyze compounds that can be vaporized.

Munsell Book of Color, 1940s. The Institute Collections. Photo by Gregory Tobias
Munsell Color Charts
Research

The Munsell color system has provided scientists with a good standard of color for soil and plants since the 1930s and is still the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s official soil-research color system.

Maximilian Ringelman Smoke Charts, 1897. The Institute Collections.
Ringelmann Smoke Charts
Research

Before the 1970s the Ringelmann chart was one of the primary methods used by government environmental and regulatory agencies to detect levels of industrial smoke.

TOMS and SBUV on display at the Institute. Photo by Gregory Tobias.
TOMS and SBUV
Research

The total ozone mapping spectrometer (TOMS) and the solar backscatter ultraviolet instrument (SBUV) have been indispensable to our current knowledge of the atmosphere.