The police of the city of Indianapolis made this wonderful Christmas gift to all motorists. The first alcohol testing device suitable for use in road conditions was called the drunkometer. Rolla N. Harger, a biochemist at Indiana State University in Bloomington, invented the breathalyzer during the Great Depression, and, most poignantly, amid the prohibition in the United States. The principle of operation of the device was simple: the driver blew into a tube, the air passed through a special solution, and if the driver consumed alcohol, the color of the solution changed. The test took just ten minutes! The device was thoroughly tested, on the eve of 1939, the Indianapolis Police Department officially approved the device developed by Professor Harger. alas, the history did not preserve the number of car owners fined on that New Year's Eve in the capital of the state of Indiana, as well as their comments on the event.