Innovation Stories

Beckman-Coulter — pH Meter

Beckman's First Acidimeter & a Modern Beckman pH Meter

Arthur O. Beckman, founder of Beckman-Coulter, invented the pH meter in 1935. The creation of the commercial pH meter began with a request from the citrus industry. Citrus growers have long known that citrus trees are highly sensitive to the acidity of soil and water, and even the ripeness of fruit was determined using a formula involving the percentages of citric acid and solids in juice.

The Beckman Model G made electronics the foundation of the chemical instrument, resulting in a rugged, self-contained instrument which needed little initial calibration before use.

The Beckman Model G represented a revolution in pH measurement, but its greater impact has been on our intuitive expectation of what a chemical instrument is and how it should perform.