Automation of Serial Assays

the majority of chemical assays in university courses, research, and small laboratories are performed manually with the aid of traditional tools (Fig. 1.1). To draw an analogy, we find ourselves in a situation similar to that in which computation technology was 15 years ago large computers were available as were pocket-size electronic calculators. 

Until the advent of FIA, all automated methods of analysis emulated not only the sequence, but also the underlying concept of individual operations performed in the course of a manual procedure (Fig. 1.2). A simple chemical assay (Fig. 1.2a) requires mixing of a precisely metered volume of sample solution with a precisely metered volume of reagent. 

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