The concept of "detection" has been around for a long time, depending on how you want to consider it. Probably the most basic device is the divining rod, used to "detect" everything from water to lines of iron ore in the ground, and so on. It's not "technical" in the sense you seem to be talking about (made of various working parts), but the idea of using things to detect other things is an old one. Once you have that, it's simply a matter of deciding whether you can link the tech you are looking at with the concept/realization that there is something specific to detect.
I'm not a science/tech historian, but I'd be stunned if things weren't built to "detect" certain substances, either in the Renaissance, at the height of science & medicine in the Middle East, or earlier in China for that matter. Historic peoples are far more resourceful than we often give them credit for. (Not that you didn't know that, nor that the broad assertion helps you much with specifics.)
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yati
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Date: 2010-11-22 07:34 pm (UTC)I'm not a science/tech historian, but I'd be stunned if things weren't built to "detect" certain substances, either in the Renaissance, at the height of science & medicine in the Middle East, or earlier in China for that matter. Historic peoples are far more resourceful than we often give them credit for. (Not that you didn't know that, nor that the broad assertion helps you much with specifics.)