The major role that pyrolysis currently plays in analytical and applied chemistry is discussed from the instrumentation aspect and through the applications that have evolved in numerous laboratories. Expanded from the industrial researcher's bench during the ’60s and ’70s, analytical pyrolysis provides significant solutions to problems in the field of trace organic analysis. Instrumentation development has focused on providing capability for both research and quality control applications in industrial R & D, forensic science, biomedicine/biochemistry and, most recently, geochemistry and process petrochemistry. For more theoretical studies in thermal degradation and kinetics, precise, yet flexible, instrumentation is now available to researchers.