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Thread: Breathalyzers in 1982?

  1. #1
    Stegodon
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    Default Breathalyzers in 1982?

    The short version: What did a portable breathalyzer machine look like in 1982?

    The long version: I am a huge fan of the British show Ashes to Ashes, a spinoff of the popular Life On Mars series. Season 2 of Ashes started this past Monday night. While the show typically does a pretty good job of showing early 80s technology, there was a scene that set my "television anachronism meter" off. MILD SPOILERS FOLLOW: In short, a police officer, on a hunch, reached into a car and grabbed a portable breathalyzer machine to test a suspect. The machine was around the size of a Tom Clancy paperback. Given that the walkie-talkies they use look like they're a foot long and three inches thick, I wondered if they had such portable breathalyzer machines in the UK in 1982.

    Are there any police officers (or, well, drunks) that can clear this up?

    Thanks!

  2. #2
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Breathalyzers in 1982?

    I don't think that electronic ones were that small back then, but weren't there non-electronic ones from that era that were basically a small bag with a tube sticking out?
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  3. #3
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Breathalyzers in 1982?

    It's possible - I remember the wands arriving here very early in the 90's (92, I exhaled into one, they were not unusual by that time - and I passed). They were much smaller than a novel.

    But Ashes and Life both made a point of using anachronisms (so they say) to build the sense of unreality.
    There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes. - Doctor Who

  4. #4
    Elephant Tuckerfan's avatar
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    Default Re: Breathalyzers in 1982?

    The ones they had in TN at about that time were not portable units. They were mounted in the police cars and couldn't be removed.
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  5. #5
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    Default Re: Breathalyzers in 1982?

    What I remember from chemistry books is that the tube-and-bag thingies used silica gel soaked with potassium dichromate, which turns green upon exposure to ethanol.

    I think, in addition to the disposable versions, for more "serious" tests, they've also had larger, more precicely calibrated devices based on the same reaction. (As an in-between to the clunky and expensive car-mounted electronic detectors which, if I recall correctly, also slowly pushed onto the market around that time.)

  6. #6
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Breathalyzers in 1982?

    Quote Originally posted by maggenpye
    But Ashes and Life both made a point of using anachronisms (so they say) to build the sense of unreality.
    Translation: the BBC has a tight budget.

  7. #7
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Breathalyzers in 1982?

    My my, tunaman, how cynical.I thought so too. :wink:
    There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes. - Doctor Who

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