The beginnings of Luminescence

Luminometers were first mentioned back in 1968 (1). In the 1970's the interest in luminescence was rapidly growing, both scientifically and commercially. This was driven by researchers looking for alternatives to radioactive isotopes and by new microbiological applications using the firefly/ATP reaction.

Other than homemade systems the only commercially available instrument at the time for this application was a Liquid Scintillation Counter (LSC). The LSC measured the luminescence by turning off one of the photomultiplier tubes and collecting the Counts per Second (CPS) for each sample. In the 1970's dedicated luminometers became commercially available and the very first dedicated luminometer was made by DuPont de Nemours in Wilmington DE (2). Applications were few in the early years and there were no practical methods for reagent handling, transport of samples, sample preparation and measurement of light yield. The use of firefly for ATP determination was sensitive but back in the 1970's the assay was still quite complex due to the firefly insects having to be collected by hand in the wild, freeze dried and then purified. This was an extremely lengthy process and could only be undertaken by experts.