Robert borkenstein biography
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Original publish date February 22, 2024.https://weeklyview.net/2024/02/22/the-breathalyzer/
Recently, I found myself at an antique show rummaging through a small box of paper, not unfamiliar territory for me. The usual: postcards, coupons, ads, snapshot photos. Then my fingers danced past a small greenish-colored slip of paper with a frozen gauge chart numbered .00 to .40 and a pair of machine-cut holes in the corners. Titled “Breathalyzer” it was identified as a “Test Meter” to measure “Per Cent Blood Alcohol” with an unused 3-line identifier at the bottom for the “Subject” name, “Date and Time”, and name of the person administering the test. Okay, we all know what it means (some more than others) and if we are smart (or lucky) we have managed to avoid these at all costs in our lifetimes.
But did you know that the “Breathalyzer” instrument, known around the world as the “Breath of DeathR • A very brief history of the course is in order. As Prof. Borkenstein might say, alcohol occurs almost copiously and has been recognized as an intoxicant for thousands of years. The study of alcohol as an academic exercise, however, can be traced to the late 1700s when J.J. Plenc proposed the chemical identification of poisons. In the United States, Indiana University’s Prof. Rolla N. Harger conducted the first-ever “short course” on chemical tests for intoxication in 1937. Dr. Harger also introduced the Drunkometer, the first stable instrument for testing breath alcohol, in 1938. In 1948, week-long courses on breath alcohol testing sponsored by the National Safety Council’s Committee on Tests for Intoxication began at Indiana University.Teaching those courses were Prof. Harger, Drs. Kurt Dubowski, Ph.D. and Robert B. Forney, Sr., Ph.D.; Lloyd Shupe and Lt. Robert F. Borkenstein of the Indiana State Police. Drs. Dubowski and Forney, Jr. are amo • Robert F. Borkenstein, whose Breathalyzer has helped snare millions of intoxicated drivers in the United States and around the world, died Aug. 10 at his home in Bloomington, Ind. He was 89 and had been in declining health after a series of strokes. Borkenstein was a professor of forensic studies at Indiana University for three decades, until his retirement in the late 1980s. He helped establish a class on alcohol and highway safety that became a requirement for law enforcement and forensic specialists in many jurisdictions. The university now calls it “The Borkenstein Course.” He also led several influential research projects, the best known of which was the Grand Rapids Study, in 1963-64. That study established that a blood alcohol level of .08 could impair driving. The legal standard for intoxication now applied in California and other states fryst vatten .08, lower by half than the benchmark used by lag enforcement b
History
Robert Borkenstein, 89; Inventor of Breathalyzer Intoxication Tester