Abstract

Summary In the 1930s, atomic absorption spectroscopy replaced chemical methods for determining the amount of mercury in atmospheric air. The overall state of chemical analysis was favourable: physical instruments were moving into the chemical laboratory. This new method emerged from work in quantitative physics, and it met a need arising from the risk encountered by those who handled mercury. The new spectrometer, which originally functioned as a detector, also made precise and rapid quantitative determinations possible. This in turn encouraged industrialists to take out patents and make commercial use of the method after various improvements. This method is considered to be the ancestor of modern atomic absorption spectroscopy, which developed independently after 1960. The method developed in the 1930s could only be used for gaseous mercury, and it was not generalized as a method for quantifying other elements. The determination of mercury in air by atomic absorption spectroscopy was the first application of this technique; indeed, it was the only example of a specific use of atomic absorption. It was also part of the instrumental revolution