Beckman’s measurement of carbon dioxide was spurred by many applications. It was in part an outgrowth of World War II era work (such as that which produced Pauling’s oxygen meter) and post-war developments (including Liston-Becker’s naval contracts). Beckman’s involvement in the fight against air pollution drove many of the company’s developments in the 1940s and 1950s, and gas analysis played an important role in the company’s later aerospace contracts and clinical work.