in the early 1940s wooward was using ultraviolet spectroscopy to discover the structure of natural products. woodward collected a large amount of information, and then worked out a series of rules, later called the woodward's rules. these rules could be used to find out the structures of new natural products, as well as non-natural synthesized molecules. woodward was always quick to use newly developed techniques. woodward's discovery saved chemists from spending a lot of time using chemical methods to work out the structures of compounds.