A computer-operated laboratory data-taking system

A large amount of time is spent in laboratory work in the two important operations of data-taking and data-analysis. Further experiments often accept as a base the accuracy of the present data and the reliability of the analyses. Thus, wherever it is possible, one attempts to use the best instruments available for the data-collection and the best in computing techniques for the data-analysis. In addition, in any new work, a procedure is established as quickly as possible so that reproducibility can be obtained. Then, as in any industry, whenever either a data-taking or a data-analysis procedure becomes fairly standardized, and achieves the status of a “tool”, efforts are made to mechanize it, to make it faster, to make it more reproducible, and to make it less susceptible to human error. Many accepted laboratory techniques, or more broadly speaking, production techniques, are presently passing through this mechanization stage.