The switching characteristics of a liquid crystal display device have been measured in terms of the current flowing through the device and the scattered light intensity. The experimental measurements agree reasonably well with the theory developed by others. Based on the measured switching characteristics, a two-frequency multiplexed matrix-addressing drive circuit has been designed. The circuit has been implemented to display alphanumeric characters with 5 x 7 dotmatrix. Finally scanning limitation is discussed from the standpoint of multiplexing scheme and operating voltages.