A hundred years of progress in electrocardiography. 1: Early contributions from Waller to Wilson.

The 1887 introduction of electrocardiography as a noninvasive investigative technique on man by Augustus Waller, and Wilhelm Einthoven's electrocardiograph from 1901 remain the two major landmarks in the 100-year history of electrocardiography. The progress in our knowledge of the mechanism and interpretation of the ECG has evolved throughout these 100 years in a succession of relatively small steps contributed by many unsung heroes, although often even relatively minor contributions by a few dominant "stars", notably Thomas Lewis and Frank Wilson, are perceived as giant leaps. The gradual evolution of our concepts of the ECG are reviewed against the historical background of the events involved from the time of Waller's discovery to the end of the second world war.