History of Crescograph
Crescograph is mainly an instrument used to measure the growth in plants and shrubs. Renowned Indian physicist, Jagadish Chandra Bose—who was also a popular polymath, archeologist, botanist and biologist made this spectacular invention in the early 20h century in India.
Bose made use of clockwork gears in the instrument, with factors like temperature, chemicals, electricity and various gases, to determine the variable growth of plants under the influence of variable stimuli, wherein the movement from the tip of the plant was recorded to understand the rates of growth.
Drawing inspiration from this conventional crescograph by Bose, a modern form of the device was built by Randall Fontes in the year 1975 at the Stanford Research Institute. The device came to be known as the Electronic Crescograph that has the capability of detecting smallest of the movements in terms of growth in plants, with the help of transformers and micrometers installed in the device.