This paper will address two cases in the 70’s and 80’s involving scientific research, technology and industry. The centre of the study is the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and what is generally portrayed as stories of success of that university. The main focus of this paper is the technology developed by Thomas Lund Madsen in the field of climate research.

In 1970 DTU indoor climate scientist P.O. Fanger published a thesis on thermal comfort, which presented an equation expressing the sensation of comfort of a human being depending on six thermal parameters and indexes for personal comfort, all based on climate chamber research. Through his work Fanger wished to make of the knowledge of thermal comfort operational and quantify human sensation. Fellow DTU researcher Thomas Lund Madsen developed measurement equipment based on the research by Fanger. A central method for Lund Madsen was to construct sensors as the human body. Over time this equipment turned into two different types of commercial products – the small Comfytest and the life size thermal manikin. The relations between the spheres of university and industry were close as both humans and artefacts spanned both domains.

In the field of climate research Fanger became somewhat of a superstar, while his comtemporary Lund Madsen was largely invisible. When the story of indoor climate research at DTU is told generally we get detailed information about the research of Fanger, a short mention of apparatus developed on the basis of the research and an equally short mention of the apparatus turning into commercial products. The aim of my study has been to find out what is hiding behind the one-liners about apparatus and industry.

Following the artefacts and other main actors I have explored different in and out fluxes to and from the process based on interviews, archival material and historical objects. In the paper I will tell the story of the instruments and how different communities of practice formed and changed. Many different types of knowledge were unified in the apparatus.

This is contrasted by another 80’s DTU success story. The centre of this story is equipment for Möesbauer spectroscopy. This equipment was made for basic research in physics at DTU. Here again a community formed with close links to industry. Again I have followed both artefacts and other actors, but this time it was not a commercial product which was transferred into the commercial sphere. It was a human being.