An American Physiologist Abroad - continued...

 

The tours provided an opportunity to assess different versions of the same type of apparatus and different methods and techniques of measurement, experiment and analysis, as they were realised in the different laboratories. This allowed him to compare them with one another and with his own respiration apparatus and the equipment he was familiar with from the Wesleyan and, later, the Carnegie laboratory. Most importantly, Benedict was also aware that tacit knowledge was crucial for an experiment to succeed and that written descriptions of instruments or experiments would always leave out vital information (Benedict, Vol. 2, p. 1). Only by visiting other labs, inspecting their apparatus, watching it in action (if possible) and learning techniques and methods from experimenters familiar with it, could another experimenter be reasonably sure that there was a good basis for comparing his results with theirs and that differences in results were not simply an effect of differences in technique and apparatus.

Once the Nutrition Laboratory became established, Benedict regularly invited foreign and domestic researchers to Boston to conduct research and receive training in the use of apparatus devised by himself and his assistants. Teaching other researchers his techniques was a method of publicising his lab and increasing its scientific prestige.