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 History The modern spectrophotometer has taken decades to be invented. French scientists had drawn the preliminary sketches for a spectrophotometer in the 1890s but the technology of that time was insufficient to build one. The modern spectrophotometer was finally perfected in 1939 by the American chemist Arnold O. Beckman (1900-2004). The early spectrophotometer was invented before World War II and was used during the war by the government to check for food poisoning and for …

…Toxicology unit uses it frequently in identifying substances; most of the substances are usually evidence sent to the laboratory to determine if they are illegal drugs. The Biology unit also uses a spectrophotometer to determine suspicious substances found in a body; i.e. a Biology unit may use a spectrophotometer to determine if the blood in the victim's body contains any poison. The ability of a spectrophotometer enables modern crime laboratory to achieve its goals.