Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part series on air gauging. Engineer and inventor Michel Dechape has updated the seminal work on the subject by V. R. Burrows.

The basic principle of blowing a jet of air or liquid from a nozzle against the surface of a workpiece to be measured is thought to have been known to scientists of the 19th century, but the first application of the principle can be traced through technical and patent literature as far back as 1917.

In the application at that time, the medium used was a liquid, and it was not until about 10 years later that a system using compressed air for engineering measuring systems was developed by a company in France. The first well-known application was in the standardizing of jets for carburetors.

The pressing military demands of the 1940s gave increased impetus to the development of air gauging, and by 1948 several systems were available. Industry in the United States was quick to appreciate the benefits that air gauging instruments had to offer, and these were put to extensive use particularly in the automobile industry.

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