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A string galvanometer is a sensitive fast-responding measuring instrument that uses a single fine filament of wire suspended in a strong magnetic field to measure small currents. In use, a strong light source is used to illuminate the fine filament, and the optical system magnifies the movement of the filament allowing it to be observed or ...
Willem Einthoven (21 May 1860 – 29 September 1927) was a Dutch medical doctor and physiologist. He invented the first practical electrocardiograph (ECG or EKG) in 1895 and received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1924 for it ("for the discovery of the mechanism of the electrocardiogram").
In 1901 to 1905, Einthoven developed the string galvanometer, which could measure and record the heart's electrical activity. Electrodes were place on three points, the “Einthoven leads”, the right and left arms and on the left foot same as today and provided precise recordings of the heart. [9] This led to Einthoven's Nobel Prize in 1924.
In 1901, Einthoven, working in Leiden, the Netherlands, used the string galvanometer: the first practical ECG. [93] This device was much more sensitive than the capillary electrometer Waller used. In 1924, Einthoven was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his pioneering work in developing the ECG.
However, Einthoven needed an exact way of measuring the minute amounts of current. In 1897 a French electrical engineer, Clement Ader, invented the "string galvanometer", containing a tensioned string of quartz. In 1903, Einthoven modified Ader's machine, adding electrodes attached to the patients limbs and thorax.
The electrocardiograph was impractical to use until Willem Einthoven, a Dutch physiologist, innovated the use of the string galvanometer for cardiac signal amplification. [2] Significant improvements in amplifier technologies led to the usage of smaller electrodes that were more easily attached to body parts. [1]
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The shape forms an inverted equilateral triangle with the heart at the center. It is named after Willem Einthoven, who theorized its existence. [2] Einthoven used these measuring points, by immersing the hands and feet in pails of salt water, as the contacts for his string galvanometer, the first practical ECG machine. [3]