| Author | Message | ||
     Mrconnir |
Regarding process analysis using NIR, when was the first application and what was it? "Mac" Fred gave me some process citations from the CNIRS Biblio, early 80's perhaps, but nothing conclusive for me to cite. I don't want to cite the wrong one, lest I feel the wrath of the NIR Gods!. I need the answer ASAP or I am going to go with what I find on my own. Gary | ||
| Lois Weyer (Lois_Weyer) |
Gary, I wrote you a reply but am not sure where it went. I don't see it on the board any more so I think I'd better repeat it. My main point was that the early near IR process articles probably used the term "IR", not near IR, so you may have to search that way. There have been a number of online filter near IR instruments for many years - probably back to the 1940's or 50's. Manufacturers include (Thermo) Moisture Systems, ABB, (NDC) Infrared Engineering, Anacon, Moisture Register, and others. Some used additional wavelengths to measure other chemicals, such as sodium hydroxide and alcohols. I don't have a record of the earliest articles, but possibly someone from one of the instrument companies could help there. I can give you some names when I get back to work on Monday if you let me know that you would like them. The earliest citation I can find right now is R. C. Gardner, Intech (Jan., 1968), measuring moisture in paper. Lois | ||
| Mrconnir |
Lois, This is great thanks. Its funny that the answer to this question would actually require this muuch effort. I thought it was pretty staight forward and be within everyones collective memory. I thought that process analytics using spectroscopic instruments would have been actually a fairly recent occurance (I mean within the past 25-30 yrs). Oh well, the things we (I) take for granted.... I will follow up with you on Monday. Also if anyone can get a hold of Dr. Wetzel about this, Emil and Howie seem to think it might be he that gets the credit for the first on-line process NIR analyzer. Let's make sure though. Who ever it is, its going to be on record in Macs first issue of the "Overtones." Gary | ||
| hlmark |
Lois - that's a key point: it seems likely to me that those earliest instruments were lab instruments, not on-line. I don't think you saw my message to Gary, but Dave Wetzel definitely mounted the optical head of an InfraAlyzer 400 directly to the chute of the flour mill at KSU fairly early on; unfortunately I don't recall exactly when, but it may have been as early as the late 1970's, and that definitely qualifies as "On-line". Howard \o/ /_\ | ||
| David Russell (Russell) |
We started building photometers in DuPont post WW2. Our Gene Taylor (now retired) wrote a letter to Spectroscopy Magazine (in response to an earlier article that claimed NIR was born much later) which described the early days in some detail. I'll try and find the article. What I do know is that the DuPont Model 800 was certainly one of the pioneers of on-line NIR analysis dating back over 50 years. A modern variant of the original DuPont design is sold by Thermo Moisture Systems as their Microquad 8200. Photometers are still a great choice for simple measurements on "dirty" liquid streams. | ||
| hlmark |
Dave - first let me say "hi - long time no see!" I have a complete collection of back issues of Spectroscopy, so if you could post the reference, I can fax a copy to Gary (just in case he doesn't have his own copy of that issue). Howard \o/ /_\ | ||
| Edward Stark |
Gary Harry Willis used NIR, I believe on line, at ICI to measure polymer thickness. I don't have a reference at the moment and it may not have been published. Peter Griffiths might have so0me info on this. I got it verbally from Harry in the late 70's or early 80's, but it was done much earlier. Ed Stark | ||
| David Hopkins (Hopkins) |
Gary and Ed, Peter Hindle, in his chapter on Historical Development in the Burns and Ciuczak Handbook of NIRA, states that Harry Willis did his work on films �in the late 1940s� and does not give a citation there (page 3). It is not clear to me from the text, whether the measurements were truly on line. Regards, Dave | ||
| Mrconnir |
All, This is a great conversation. I got a response from Dr. Wetzel and he is fairly certain that he may be one of the earlier pioneers with citable evidence to boot. Anyhow, Fred would like me to nail this down by Friday at the earliest. So who shall we give the citation to for the first on-line analyzer? (At this point, whether or not it is NIR / IR, UV/VIS whatever, may be a moot point, the emphasis here is "real-time" analysis using a spectrophotometer with filters or other optical configuration) Why do I feel that I just stepped in another pile of doo doo!!! Gary | ||
| Bruce H. Campbell (Campclan) |
I have a text book that gives a one page write-up on an IR analyzer that used two beams. One beam transited a "good" or desired quality of product. The other beam transited the process sample. If the two beams had equal absorbances, the sample was in spec. The text book is from Van Nostrrand and is "Instrumental Methods of Analysis" with the first edition in 1948. I have the 1965 edition. No references were given in the write-up. | ||
| hlmark |
Bruce - well, textbooks get modified to keep up with current state of the art, but even a 1965 edition beats anything else we have so far. But the problem I have with Gary's latest message, though, is that it's not really fair to change the rules in the middle of the game: the first message requesting the information started out: "Regarding process analysis using NIR, ..." and that's what we all tried to find out. So it's not all that surprising that measurements in other spectral regions might be older. I'd be VERY surprised if visible and/or UV measurements might not be even older than that. But Gary, you really should be consistent: which type(s) of analysis we should consider; the answer will clearly depend on whether the field is open or we consider NIR only. Howard \o/ /_\ | ||
| Mrconnir |
Howie's right, but I really still want a NIR citation. I kind of streached it to other spectroscopies to see if I could even get one citation. I get memories so far, no citations. Is anyone willing to throw at least one citation out there for consideration? | ||
| lois_weyer |
Gary, have you found the Intech reference I gave you earlier? It might cite something earlier. I am trying other sources as well. Please call me again, as I don't have your phone number here at work. Lois | ||
| lois_weyer |
Gary and all, Here is a message from Joe Andrisani of Dupont, who has apparently kept excellent records of past references. Even if these are not the very first citations, I think that they provide insight into the early days of process near IR analysis. "John and Lois - I have two reprints from Control Engineering - "Photometric Stream Analyzers - Versatile Instruments for Measuring Composition", dated October 1957 authored by Leo G. Glasser, DuPont - "Infrared Process-Stream Analyzers", dated November 1957 authored by Daniel J. Troy, DuPont The first covers UV process analyzers and the second (near) infrared process analyzers. An editorial introduction to the second article says "In the past ten years the number of infrared analyzers in plant service in the chemical and petroleum industries has increased from a negligible amount to more than a thousand, making this instrument the most widely used composition-measuring device today and an established article of commerce (at least five instrument companies manufacture it)." It's obvious from the second article that NIR analyzers were being fully exploited for process analysis - it covers both dispersive and non-dispersive instruments and talks about the future development of interference filters - "In the wavelength range already being used present developments are expected to lead to greater facility in the selection of analytical wavelengths, particularly through the use of interference filters composed of multiple layers of dielectric materials. The performance of these filters is constantly being improved and they are becoming available". So from that point just fast-forward 50 years and add better sources, better detectors, optical dispersing elements, matrix algebra, and a computer to bring you up to today! Other early references include one from Gary Nichols' (BASF) 1991 ISA paper "A Status report on Process Analyzer Technology" - the reference is to "Instrumentation and Control in the German Chemical Industry" British Intelligence June 1946. Nichols acknowledges Terry McMahon and Bill Dailey as his source for a copy of this paper which discusses the Luft Detector in use at the I. G. Farben chemical works in WWII Germany - the real origin of process infrared analysis. Nichols also references a paper by Bill Dailey and Terry McMahon in InTech September 1988 titled "Process Analyzers - The Early Years" - this would probably be an excellent article to read in order to understand the origins of (near) infrared analyzers. " Although it would be tempting to use the 1946 reference, I think that might be mid IR (although I don't know that for sure). The second, 1957 article which apparently states that the instruments had been around for ten years, would probably be your best citation for now. I have other feelers out also and will let you know if I receive any more information. | ||
| David Russell (Russell) |
I've found a copy of Gene Taylor's "History of Near Infrared Analyzers", dated April 19, 1989. This was published in part by Emil Ciurzak in Spectroscopy (probably a few months later in 1989). I've been unable to locate a copy of this publication (my personal set only goes back to 1991). In the document, Gene makes mention of early work post WW2, but this work was with the Luft detector based NDIR instrumentation. He indicates that the PbS detector was invented in 1952 and that by 1954 DuPont Engineering had built an instrument based on a PbS detector and a Ebert monochrometer. It is the application of this early device that is most likely referenced in the 1957 citations. Shortly thereafter, interference filters became available and by 1961 DuPont was building the first of their Model 800 photometers. The 800 and its successors continued to be built until about 1990 when the concept was given to Moisture Systems in return for the development of their version, marketed as the Microquad 8200. If Howard has a full set from 1989, perhaps he could find the "published" version. I believe, however, I've extracted the "meat" of the "early years" memories from that document. I will also attempt to reach the inventor of the 1954 instrument and see if anything was published prior to the 1957 references that Joe cited. Dave Russell | ||
| Edward Stark |
Hi I found the Spectroscopy reference in Vol 4 No 7 page 10. It was a molecular spectroscopy workbench article "Near-Infrared Analysis at DuPont: A Historical Perspective" by Eugene S. Taylor. Emil was column editor. I believe that there was one inaccuracy in that article. The PbS detector is much older than 1952. Smith, Jones, and Chasmar discuss the PbS detector in The Detection and Mrasurement of Infrared Radiation, Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1957 p136ff. T.W.Case found the photoconductive effect in PbS in 1917 (Physical Review, 9, 305 (1917)). Other early work was done by W.W. Coblentz and H. Kahler (Bull.Bur.Stand, 15, 121 (1919). Although I have not found the reference, I read in the early defense department literature which I reviewed many years ago, that PbS was used by Germany during WWII. | ||
| Tony Davies (Td) |
With regard to Ed Stark's reference to Harry Willis: Roy Miller wrote an article �Professor Harry Willis and the history of NIR spectroscopy� for NIR news [2(4), 12 (1991)] which was concerned with Harry�s work at ICI in the 40�s and 50�s. �Such was the confidence which was inspired throughout the Company by the analytical methods developed in the NIR region that spectrometers began to appear in the analytical and development laboratories, on production plants and in technical service �trouble-shooting� laboratories�. Which would appear to support the idea that NIR was on-line or in-line in the 1950�s. Tony | ||
| Gary Ritchie |
Well this is developing into a very nice source for the history of NIR in Process Analytics. This was not my intention, but it is nice that we have something evolving anyhow. It was probably about time. I will reduce what we have to some kind of timeline for the next article on Process Analytics in the next issue of OVERTONES (and maybe even something for NIRnews, eh, Tony?), unless one of you experts want to do it as a guest editor in my column, or for one of Tony's editors? The experts would be able to add more antedoctal info and more color to the piece than I could that's for sure. Gary | ||
| Gary |
I need all of your permission to reprint this string for some articles. Please signify by sending me email at my home email at: [email protected]. If I don't hear from you, I will assume you do not object. Thanks. Gary |