The History of Multimeter

Multimeter, an electrical movement detecting device, has been long used in industry and labs, the typical features every multimeter offer is current resistance and voltage measurements. The first device with a moving pointer was introduced in early 1800, and it was used to measure current and was named a galvanometer. It was extremely sensitive to current changes and used the magnetic induction principle to detect changes in current. Later this device was modified to detect the voltage using the Wheatstone bridge principle. These devices were still inaccurate and were bulky, and had limitations using them in industry.

Further modifications used moving magnetic coil devices. This helped in detection and paved a way to measure the voltage levels by some proportional pre-defined calibrated ratings. This new modification didn’t make use of the bridge, which avoid the orientation-based detection. The earliest model didn’t have any rectifiers that limit their functionality to measure only DC voltages to measure the AC voltages. The very first rectifies were introduced in the 1920s.

The first person credited for the multimeter is a British Engineer Donald Macadie, a Post Office engineer. He came up with a device that could measure voltage current and resistance at the same time. The first commercial model introduced was called AVOMETER patented by Automatic Coil Winder and Electrical Equipment Company (ACWEECO). Macadie was a shareholder of this company but continued to work for the post office until his retirement.