Chemical instruments are pieces of laboratory equipment that are used to make quantitative measurements. They are distinguishable from chemical apparatus in that they directly measure quantities, or enable a quantity to be measured, whereas chemical apparatus are used solely in the conduction of experiments. For example, burettes and spectro photometers are chemical instruments--one measures volume and the other measures absorbance. Fractional distillation columns, Bunsen burners, and beakers on the other hand are chemical apparatus because they are used in conducting experiments, but do not measure any quantity.

Historically, the development of analytical techniques has closely followed the introduction of new chemical instruments. The first quantitative analyses were gravimetric analyses (weighing things) that were made possible by the invention of a precise balance. English physicist Francis Hauksbee (1666- 1713) constructed the first c hemical precise balance in 1710. In the 1770s, French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) dismantled the phlogiston...