The Joy of Keeping a Lab Notebook

In November of 2017, I began keeping a lab notebook for experiments (inspired by this document). My last entry was December of 2017 (a whopping two months of use) before I lost interest or motivation or both.

I rediscovered it a few days ago when I came across a project I had recorded in it. I had converted the 4-prong plug of a 1950’s era rotary telephone into a jack usable in today’s homes. I could vaguely remember the result, like the ringer not working and not being able to dial out. I decided to try it on a dedicated landline, and amazingly, it worked! I got a dial tone and could make calls! The ringer still didn’t work, but I kind of expected that.

Anyway, the entry in my lab notebook for this project captured so many details that got lost to neural garbage collection along the years. I was quite happy rediscovering what my past self had put time and effort into recording.

Deciphering my handwriting is left as an exercise to the reader.

If I wanted to repeat what I did 5 years ago, I could do so quite easily and accurately. Not only that, but I enjoyed reading my observations and how the actual process differed from the theory.

I have to admit, recording this experiment in my notebook took a lot more time than actually doing it, but I like the idea of capturing all of these details and retracing my steps 5+ years down the line. I’m excited to record more experiments in my lab notebook now. We’ll see if it lasts more than two months!