A time-of-flight (TOF) spectrometer has been developed to measure the absolute total cross sections for electrons scattering with helium and other gases over energy range from 1 to 50 eV. The TOF spectrometer and experimental procedures are described in detail, and the experimental results for electron-helium scattering are presented, together with associated errors. The results are found to be in good agre-ement with other recent experimental and theoretical results.