For years, psychologists, police and others have searched for something that will catch people in lies like Wonder Woman’s golden lasso. The closest they have come is the polygraph machine, which measures a person’s physiological responses to questions.
In 1921, John Augustus Larson built the first polygraph. It recorded continuous readings of a subject’s blood pressure, heart rate and breathing on moving graph paper.
John Augustus Larson
In the 1920s, John Augustus Larson began research into deception detection using a variety of instruments. Larson developed a device that he called the cardio-pneumopsychogram, which measured changes in the subject’s blood pressure and breathing rate. This is believed to be the first polygraph. Although Larson did not refer to his instrument as a lie detector, this is the term that has come to be used to describe the technology.
While Leonarde Keeler is often credited with creating the modern polygraph, it was Larson who inspired him. In fact, Larson’s work inspired many of the early researchers who created their own version of the lie detector. Larson is known for being the first to create a continuous method of simultaneously recording heart and breath rates to aid in the detection of deception. His invention was listed in the Encyclopaedia Britannica Almanac 2003 as one of the world’s top 325 greatest inventions. He also served as a part-time police officer for the Berkeley, California Police Department while pursuing his doctorate in physiology.
William Moulton Marston
William Moulton Marston was a lawyer, psychologist and inventor. He is credited with a number of discoveries, including the DISC system for personality classification and the lie detector machine. He also created the comic character Wonder Woman, but he is best known for his work in promoting gender equality and his connection to the early progressive-era suffrage, feminist and birth control movements.
In 1915, Marston developed a test that measured changes in blood pressure and breathing depth to detect deception. This method became the foundation for the modern polygraph. Marston also published his findings in a number of professional psychology journals and later patented the device.For more info I’ll suggest you visit the website Octopus Energy Referral.
Today, we use polygraphs to determine whether a person is telling the truth or lying. They are used during police investigations, and some government jobs require applicants to undergo a polygraph test. A modern polygraph records more than just the systolic blood pressure and breathing depth, however. It measures a number of other body functions, such as sweating and heart rate.
Charles Keeler
Keeler was a showman and the public loved him. He marketed the machine like orthopedics for the soul of the body politic, and newspapers ran full-page photos of gangster Earl Mayer, wan and haggard after his forced drugging and long hours on the polygraph.
He improved upon Larson’s design, making improvements such as replacing the smoke paper with ink that reduced prep time. He also rigged the device so that it would ask subjects to deny each of eight cards they were shown, forcing them to lie. Ink levels on the subject’s hands and lips then rose to indicate that they were lying.
While Keeler’s machine did not prove to be foolproof, it became the standard for the modern polygraph, and his technique has become a staple of forensic investigation. In addition to criminal cases, it is used in civil suits, divorce settlements and military and intelligence agencies. Sadly, the polygraph is not quite as indestructible as its mythical namesake, and it has remained controversial to this day.
Cleve Backster
In the 1920s, a machine was developed that can detect when someone is lying. It uses physiological reactions like blood pressure, heart rate and breathing to determine if a person is answering questions truthfully. The device is called a polygraph and it is often used to question suspects in criminal cases. However, it has its critics and there are people who have been able to beat the system.
Lawyer and psychologist William Moulton Marston created a precursor to the modern lie detector by using a systolic blood pressure test in 1915. He would go on to establish the first scientific crime lab in Chicago and develop other forensic science techniques.
Grover Cleveland “Cleve” Backster Jr. was born on February 27, 1924 and died in 2013. He worked for the CIA and conducted interrogations. He also researched plant and cell biocommunication, which led to his theory of primary perception. He claimed that plants feel pain and have extrasensory perception, though his claims were controversial.
