We are fortunate to have in our collection a 1942 version of the Harger Drunkometer which is featured in the photograph above.
The Harger Drunkometer was the precursor to the Breathalyzer.
Professor Rolla Neil Harger of the Indiana University School of Medicine invented this device in 1931 to help law enforcement test people for suspicion of drunk driving.
Later, in 1938, Mr. Harger was one of five people chosen for the Subcommittee of the National Safety Council which drafted legislation defining blood alcohol content limits for drunk driving.
In the photograph below, M.A. Berglund (left), who was a salesperson with the Stephenson Corporation, demonstrates the use of the Harger Drunkometer to Aldermen Lund (center) and Hendricks (right) of the Minneapolis City Council’s Police Committee.
Drunkometer from the Collection of the Minneapolis Police Museum
Photograph of Drunkometer demonstration courtesy of Hennepin County Library
I love the fact that the guy on the right is smoking a cigar; I’m assuming it is lit. During the breathalyzer and intoxilyzer times, smoking was prohibited anywhere near.