Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 17, Number 17, DeMotte, Jasper County, 21 March 1947 — Billionth of Gram Weighed by Gadget [ARTICLE]

Billionth of Gram Weighed by Gadget

New Instrument Expected to Be Help to Science. EVANSTON, ill. Development of a highly sensitive electronic instrument capable of detecting the presence of some compounds weighing only a billionth of a gram was announced by Northwestern university. ' The university said the instrument, called the fhinrimoter, could complete in a few minutes some nutritional experiments formerly requiring months. It* added the instrument would find wide use in chemical laboratories and assist in the standardization of drug products and in the control of quality in food production. Dr. Theodore E. Friedemann, associate professor of physiology, who developed the instrument with cooperation of George S. Liebeck, American Telephone and Telegraph Co. engineer, described its operation as follows: All compounds in nature absorb light. Some, such as vitamins, emit light in higher wave lengths. This light, called fliiorescence, is invisible to the naked eye in the quantities measured, but readily detected with the instrument. Computations determine the quantity in a compound from which the glow emanates. Chemists now can determine in a few minutes the quantity of a vitamin in a food or in the tissue of a vitamin deficient patient. “The development of this instrument represents a Stage in the de-’ velopment of more sensitive devices needed for better understanding of life processes and the effects of food and environment on those processes,” Dr. Friedepnann said.