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Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
d'Arsonval electric chronometer, for measuring reflex reaction time, by Charles Verdin, Paris, 1902
This chronometer has been adapted to record the response time of a nerve to a stimulus. The patient is touched with the ball-topped metal rod, which has been charged by an electromagnet. Once they have felt the current, they press down on the tweezers-like rod in their hand. This cuts the current and holds the needle on the dial in place so a reading in hundredths of a second can be taken.
This chronometer was invented by Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval (1851-1940), a biophysicist. His chronometer could determine the extent and location of damage to the nervous system, as injured nerves took longer to transmit stimuli.
Related people
Details
- Category:
- Laboratory Medicine
- Object Number:
- 1980-1109
- Materials:
- box, mahogany and instrument, brass
- type:
- chronograph - timer
- taxonomy:
-
- furnishing and equipment
- measuring device - instrument
- timepiece
- credit:
- Delehar, P.
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Data in the title, made, maker and details fields are released under Creative Commons Zero
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