Early development[edit]
The earliest attempt for the measurements of lung volumes can be dated back to period 129-200 A.D. Claudius Galen, who was a Roman doctor and philosopher, first did a volumetric experiment on human ventilation. He had a boy breathe in and out of a bladder and found out that the volume did not change. The experiment proved inconclusive.[2]
1681, Borelli tried to measure the volume of air inspired in one breath. He assembled a cylindrical tube partially filled with water, with an open water source entering the bottom of the cylinder. He occluded his nostrils, inhaled through an outlet at the top of the cylinder and measured the volume of air displaced by water. This technique is very important in getting parameters of lung volumes nowadays.[2]