Around this time, Volney Mathison, whose electro-psychometer had been used by Hubbard and many Scientologists, had fallen into disfavor. He had refused to surrender the patent to his invention. It was the Mathison E-Meter, and Mathison was determined to keep it that way. So in late 1954 the use of the E-meter was discontinued by Hubbard.
Wrote Hubbard: Yesterday, we used an instrument called an E-Meter to register whether or not the process was still getting results so that the auditor would know how long to continue it. While the E-Meter is an interesting investigation instrument and has played its part in research, it is not today used by the auditor.... As we long ago suspected, the intervention of a mechnical gadget between the auditor and the preclear had a tendency to depersonalize the session....
In 1958 Don Breeding and Joe Wallis developed a modified, smaller battery operated version of Volney Mathison's device, which they presented to Hubbard. It was christened the Hubbard electrometer. What a difference a name makes!
As you probably guessed, E-meters were suddenly once again essential to auditing.
Back to the "Secrets of the E-Meter" page