Boger fluids are named after David V. Boger, who in the late 1970s was the primary researcher pushing for the study of constant viscosity elastic liquids. He released his first paper on Boger fluids in 1977, titled "A Highly Elastic Constant-Viscosity Fluid", where he described the ideal fluid for experimentation as a fluid that is "highly viscous and highly elastic at room temperature and at the same time is optically clear". The main purpose of the paper was to experiment on the highly viscous and highly elastic fluid and record the fundamental rheometric properties of the fluid. Such a fluid would allow for experimentation under conditions not affected by inertia and shear thinning effects, and influence of inertia would easily be distinguishable. 
He began his research using maltose syrups (corn syrups) mixed with a small amount of water. He then tested shear stress versus shear rate of the solution to prove that the solution was a Newtonian fluid. This was done by using a R16 Weissenberg rheogoniometer (a rheogoniometer calibrated to measure specifically the behavior of a viscoelastic polymer solution) for the low range shear stress rates, and the high rates were measured using a capillary rheometer, a device used to measure shear stress rates under high stress. The data proved that there was a linear relationship between shear stress and shear rate with the slope being very close to one, meaning the maltose syrup was indeed a Newtonian fluid. Once 0.08% of the polymer polyacrylamide was added, the flow properties drastically changed. Elastic properties were introduced to the fluid while only a slight amount of shear thinning was observed, small enough to be ignored. The syrup solution had properties very similar to a polymer melt, but there was no shear thinning and the materials could be produced at room temperature.