From late 1968 Pierre Galletti and I began a period of more than a dozen years working together on measurements of performance of blood oxygenators. This paper is to provide a summary, synergetic and technical, of this era. The oxygenators ranged from direct-contact designs to membrane lungs. Some were prototypes built by others for the Artificial Heart Program, of many different sizes, some were commercial prototypes or production units. We used in vitro tests and ex vivo experiments (partial bypass with sheep) over a wide range of blood and gas flow rates to separate the contributions of design features to performance. We investigated pathology, e.g., the units' own versions of pulmonary edema, blood-path shunting, thrombus formation and blood passage occlusion. We proposed and used standardized conditions for making comparisons of performance of different designs. To help maintain the credibility of our laboratory we did not make competitive designs of our own for the common use of these artificial lungs (bypass during cardiac surgery). We examined performance of coiled and woven microfibrillarteflon tube designs for implantable lungs, and demonstrated pumpless A-V bypass for long-term support. Spin-offs included the hybrid artificial pancreas; a focussed-ultrasound bubble/ particle/ embolus detector for checking blood at exit; and an artificial glomerulus. We taught a graduate course in artificial organs; our post-docs went on to careers in academia, the medical device industry, and medicine. Throughout this era we were assisted by the extraordinary fabrication skills of Mr Georg Panol.