Automation in analytical chemistry—from rule of thumb to fully automated methods. Some philosophies and social consequences

Historical brief It seems a far cry from 1761 when the chemist's place ofwork was defined in the following way: 'Laboratory or Elaboratory, the chemists workhouse or the place where they perform their operations, where their furnaces are built, their vessels kept, etc. and in general the term laboratory is applied to any place where physical experiments in pharmacy, chemistry, pyrotechny etc. are performed' [-1]. By 1880 it was pointed out to the American Society of Microscopists that 'the better the instrument the more reliable the results obtained, and the best work cannot be done even by the most expert worker except with the best instruments' [2]. Ofcourse we have seen dramatic changes in the appearance of analytical instruments since those days, and by the mid 1950s George D. Beal could confidently state that the analytical laboratory was, in his estimation, 'the Supreme Court of the chemical profession in its relation to industry' [3]. From early times, equipment for chemical transformations has been made by man-his machines having been evolved from apparatus of the kitchen, the pharmacy and the forge. Quality and purity measurements became fairly widespread, the only really qualitative tests being thcse for the assay of gold and silver by cupellation. The 17th century witnessed many new instruments, such as the telescope, microscope, air pump and pneumatic trough for the collection of gases. Eighteenth-century preoccupations with fire paved the way for the introduction of the mouth blowpipe, which further extended the range of analytical chemistry. Hydrometers, burettes, pipettes, polari-meters, viscometers, bunsen burners, colorimeters, and a whole host of varied and important instruments became available to the laboratory during the 18th and 19th centuries. The 19th century was a period of consolidation. Chemical analysis grew into an art, with a sound empirical basis involving weight relationships and chemical combinations. Techniques on gravimetric analysis were continually refined and there emerged new concepts of physical chemistry towards the turn of the century. Techniques in volumetric analysis were gradually improved, though it only became effective in industrial applications around the middle of the century, and it matured as an accurate method of analysis with the advent of sensitive indicators and the general acceptance of titrimetric procedures. The first titrimeric method was probably carried out by Claude Joseph Geoffroy in 1729 when he showed that Orleans' vinegar was stronger than the Parisian variety [4]. Descroizilles described a burette for the volumetric determination of …