AVOmeter used by biophysicist Archibald Hill

AVOmeter brand of multimeter and electrical measurement instrument, with probes and battery, made by the Automated Coil Winder and Electrical Company Limited, used by the biophysicist Archibald V Hill at University College London c. 1930-1950

Archibald V Hill (1886-1977) was the one of the pioneers of biophysics. Biophysics applies quantitative measurement to reactions in body such as nerve and muscles reactions - the field that Hill studied extensively from 1910 onwards. He shared the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work. A year after his retirement, the Biophysics Department at University College London, was established in 1952. Hill was one of the members of the Academic Assistance Council which became the Society of the Protection of Science and Learning to assist refugees researchers escaping persecution from the Nazi Germany regime.

AVOmeters were the first multi-purpose electrical measuring device. Developed in the 1920s by the head of the General Post Office Telephones in London, Donald Macadie, it combines a measure for amps, volts and ohms. It is a device more typically owned by physicists or engineers at the time and show’s Hill’s commitment to electrical measurement. He also scratched his name into the casing.