Particle shape detection and measurement are important features in the more general field of particle analysis and characterisation. Knowledge of the particle shape is useful in a wide variety of industrial applications. Although it is often practically feasible to use imaging technologies for particle shape analysis, this is not often a sufficiently efficient method for widespread on-line or in situ applications. In many applications it would be sufficient to have an indicator of particle shape, in the same way that a turbidity sensor is an indicator of the amount of particles present. Scattered polarized light from individual particles will be shown as a useful tool for particle shape detection. In principle, the presence of non-spherical particles can be diagnosed by analysing the change in polarisation state following scattering and in particular exploiting a configuration in which spherical particles produce no such changes. The concerns of this thesis are the design and implementation of optical polarimeters for the detection of non-spheres in an aqueous suspension, with particular emphasis on a robust implementation.