Three analytic ultracentrifuges are controlled and useful operating measurements recorded by a central control and data acquisition system. Rotor speed, temperature, picture number of each schlieren photograph, and time of each measurement are recorded on cards by a printing summary punch machine. AFortranIV computer program processes the data, yielding graphs of rotor speed and temperature vs time and the accumulated value of&ohgr;FS−2∫&ohgr;2(t)dtfor the mean time of each schlieren photograph. These data permit error detection as well as more accurate schlieren analysis of lipoprotein distributions and flotation rates.