A breathalyzer or breathalyser (a portmanteau of breath and

analyzer/analyser) is a device for estimating blood alcohol content (BAC)

from a breath sample. Breathalyzer is the brand name (a genericized
trademark) for the instrument that tests the alcohol level developed by
inventor Robert Frank Borkenstein. It was registered as a trademark on May
13, 1954, but many people use the term to refer to any generic device for
estimating blood alcohol content .
A 1927 paper produced by Emil Bogen, who collected air in a football bladder
and then tested this air for traces of alcohol, discovered that the alcohol
content of 2 litres of expired air was a little greater than that of 1 cc of urine.
However, research into the possibilities of using breath to test for alcohol in a
person's body dates as far back as 1874, when Francis E. Anstie made the
observation that small amounts of alcohol were excreted in breath.
Also, in 1927 a Chicago chemist, William Duncan McNally, invented a
breathalyzer in which the breath moving through chemicals in water would
change color. One use for his invention was for house wives to test whether
their husbands had been drinking before letting them in the house.
In late 1927, in a case in Marlborough, England, a Dr. Gorsky, Police Surgeon,
asked a suspect to inflate a football bladder with his breath. Since the 2 liters

of the man's breath contained 1.5 ml of ethanol,[dubious discuss] Dr.

Gorsky testified before the court that the defendant was "50% drunk".
In 1931 the first practical roadside breath-testing device was the
drunkometer developed by Rolla Neil Harger of the Indiana University School
of Medicine. The drunkometer collected a motorist's breath sample directly
into a balloon inside the machine. The breath sample was then pumped
through an acidified potassium permanganate solution. If there was alcohol
in the breath sample, the solution changed color. The greater the color
change, the more alcohol there was present in the breath. The drunkometer
was manufactured and sold by Stephenson Corporation of Red Bank, New
Jersey.
In 1954 Robert Frank Borkenstein (19122002) was a captain with the
Indiana State Police and later a professor at Indiana University Bloomington.
His Breathalyzer used chemical oxidation and photometry to determine
alcohol concentrations. Subsequent breath analyzers have converted
primarily to infrared spectroscopy. The invention of the Breathalyzer provided
law enforcement with a non-invasive test providing immediate results to
determine an individual's breath alcohol concentration at the time of testing.
In 1967 in Britain, William 'Bill' Ducie and Tom Parry Jones developed and
marketed the first electronic breathalyser. They established Lion Laboratories
in Cardiff. Bill Ducie was a chartered electrical engineer and Tom Parry Jones
was a lecturer at UWIST. The Road Safety Act 1967 introduced the first
legally enforceable maximum blood alcohol level for drivers in the UK, above
which it became an offence to be in charge of a motor vehicle; and
introduced the roadside breathalyser, made available to police forces across
the country. In 1979, Lion Laboratories' version of the breathalyser, known as
the Alcolyser and incorporating crystal-filled tubes that changed colour
above a certain level of alcohol in the breath, was approved for police use.
Lion Laboratories won the Queen's Award for Technological Achievement for
the product in 1980, and it began to be marketed worldwide. The Alcolyser
was superseded by the Lion Intoximeter 3000 in 1983, and later by the Lion
Alcolmeter and Lion Intoxilyser. These later models used a fuel cell alcohol
sensor rather than crystals, providing a more reliable curbside test and
removing the need for blood or urine samples to be taken at a police station.
In 1991, Lion Laboratories was sold to the American company MPD, Inc.

PROJECT
In

SCIENCE
Submitted by:

Submitted to:

John Ronald N. Saldon

Ms. Charmie Ramilo