An overview of the measurement of electrical quantities from 1979 to 2002

Measurement 45 (2012) 2185–2193

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An overview of the measurement of electrical quantities from 1979 to 2002 Mario Savino ⇑ Electrical and Electronic Department, Politecnico di Bari, Via Re David 200, 70125 Bari, Italy

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Article history: Available online 3 February 2012 Keywords: Electrical measurement Technical Committee IMEKO History

a b s t r a c t In the last few years measurements of electrical quantities have shown a noticeable trend especially toward a more and more wide range of frequencies. To understand this trend may be useful to know the history of a Technical Committee on ‘‘Measurement of Electrical Quantities’’, the IMEKO TC4, history which is also a significant part of my life. I hope the reader will learn not only of the sequence of dates, but also of the humanity and commitment of the founding members, of the joys and difficulties that arise within a Technical Committee, and finally of the friendship among people from the entire world. The paper provides a survey of the TC4 life from 1979 to 2002, reporting on the Symposia, the Workshops and the round tables organized in that period. The most important events are mentioned with special reference to the historical context relevant to the measurement of electrical quantities. That period was crucial for the TC4 activities in the following years. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction The main interest of TC4 is emphasizing both theoretical and practical aspects of research in the field of electrical and electronic measurements. It was officially established in 1984. The activities of TC4 allowed many researchers to be familiar with the development and use of electrical and electronic instruments for measuring, monitoring and recording electrical signals. TC4 contributed to the considerable progress achieved in the fields of both electronic technology and digital signal processing. Nowadays, considering an instrument as a device for the measurement of a single quantity is inadequate because there are very complex automated measurement systems realized by interfacing cheap digital instruments, analog-to-digital conversion boards, and personal computers. The aim of this paper is to describe this evolution, particularly the transition from one single measurement instrument to a process providing information. There is a great deal of merit in what TC4 has achieved bringing together the experts from eastern and western countries to discuss a wide array of fine papers essentially ⇑ Tel.: +39 0805963266; fax: +39 0805963410. E-mail address: [email protected] 0263-2241/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.measurement.2012.01.024

directed at improving the efficiency of sensors and measuring instruments. In those years measurement had been considered in different ways in western and eastern countries. In western side the prevailing concept was that measurement produces results related to physical systems and only experts in different fields are able to give an interpretation of the measurement data. The value of Measurement Societies was marginal compared to the other scientific Societies and the researchers in the field of electrical measurement preferred to send their papers to journals on power apparatus and systems. On the contrary, in the Universities of eastern countries there were several Departments devoted to measurement science, because the complexity of the interaction with the physical world was traditionally acknowledged and the results obtained by measuring devices were considered as estimates needed to be corrected by the errors, which were involved in the process. TC4 allowed scientists of the entire world to be aware of a single methodology in measurement science, which can be applied to each branch of technology, requiring the knowledge of fundamentals. The basic concepts such as uncertainty, statistical data analysis, interpretation of results, reliability as well as certification were among the topics of TC4 Symposia with special reference to the basic instrumentation that is essentially electronic and digital.

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In my official capacity as the honorary chairman of TC4, I am sure that this history will allow readers to reconnect the past to the present, thus creating the necessary continuity that helps to build the future. Nowadays the world is changing faster than ever and sometimes we forget our origin, as well as our history. We live day by day without knowing what the context of anything is. The exponential growth of information and of communication nets induces most people to read much more news, that several times are unimportant stuff, rather than history. I think that the history could help people reinforce the experiencing of their individual, social and cultural identity. Considering the origin of TC4 community is a journey into the past to contribute to informal learning in the measurement science. In particular I hope this history would help young people, concerned with electrical measurements, achieve their cultural identity, because they normally go through the exploration of different identities before they make a commitment to one of them. The earlier they make this commitment, the sooner they will tend to be happier and healthier than those who do not. History is the teacher of life, whenever I resort the memory, one of the most important resource of humanity, then my daily work becomes more peaceful and less tiring. I think that if I did something in the past, I would be able to do it, even better, today or tomorrow. The beauty of memories is that they are placed in our minds out of time. We must make an effort, probably unnecessary, to define their date. The extraordinary thing is that the remembrances relive as many times as we want, when and whenever we feel the need. It seems rather natural to try to expand the historical dimensions of TC4, starting by concentrating on one of the most important periods, that is the beginning before its foundation. In Section 2 with that in mind I focus on the years of founding from 1979 to 1984, so that all of us will know the TC4 founders and the framework of their commitment. In the second part, I present TC4 events not only as a list or as a clean straight path to the obvious, but through the scientific research seen as an inviting road toward the future, that is, where measurement researchers want to go and may go on.

2. The beginning In May 1979 Giuseppe Zingales, at that time the Italian delegate to IMEKO General Council, organized a common journey for all Italian participants attending the 8th World Congress on ‘‘Measurement for progress in science and technology’’, held in Moscow, USSR. Unfortunately the flight from Rome to Frankfurt airport delayed and we missed the connection with the flight to Moscow. The following flight to Moscow left the day after; therefore we had much time to talk to each other about the Congress. Many of us were experts in the field of electrical and electronic measurements and we asked Zingales why there was no TC relevant to electrical measurements in the list of IMEKO TCs. He answered that two committees TC2 on ‘‘Photon Detectors’’ (now ‘‘Photonics’’) and TC4 on ‘‘Microwave Measurements’’ existed in the field of electronic

measurements. The scope of TC2 was essentially the conversion of optical images in electrical signals for applications in photometry, radiometry, optoelectronics, optical communications and astronomy. At that time TC2 had organized regular Symposia with a good number of participants. The same thing did not happen for TC4 that was unfortunately not active. Zingales had to admit the absence of a committee relevant to electrical measurements in spite of the presence of many experts in that field at IMEKO Symposia and Congresses. The main reason was that the General Council wanted to avoid competition with the IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, an association that was and still is the largest technical professional society in the world and that counts an Instrumentation and Measurement among its Societies. Because many of us were involved in some activities of this Institute, we formed the opinion that there was no need for competition between these two institutions, whereas cooperation was possible. After this discussion Zingales promised he would verify the possibility of creating a committee on electrical measurements within IMEKO. During that Congress I met for the first time Italo Gorini, who was to become one of my best friends and to whom I will always be grateful. He was a professor of ‘‘Politecnico di Torino’’ and the presentation at the Congress of his paper on sensors and transducers [1] was very much appreciated, not only by me. Those years saw the beginning of a remarkable technological advance in sensors with an increasing improvement in their reliability, accuracy, performance and safety for many applications. Italo underlined the importance of the calibration of the sensors inserted in measurement instruments. He was a very generous man as well as an excellent scientist. I remember when at the Moscow airport, while we were coming back to Italy, he friendly assisted Athos Bray, who felt a little ill due to the stressful travel. Athos was another Italian colleague who had presented at the Congress an interesting survey lecture [2]. He discussed the fundamental problem of dissemination of the standards of measurement units, which had and continues to have not only a great impact on scientific research but also an economic effect on commerce and trade. He highlighted the importance of calibrations made annually in public and private sectors by testing laboratories for this dissemination. In May 1982 during the 9th IMEKO World Congress, held in Berlin West, the basic idea of creating a Technical Committee (TC) on Electrical Measurements was shared by a group of colleagues, Adam Fiok, Wladimir Kneller, Giuseppe Zingales and in particular Jean Weiler, at that time Treasurer of Confederation. I think that Jean Weiler could be considered the Father of TC4; his memory is dear to me. The aim of this group was that IMEKO, the most important Confederation of Measurement in the world (founded in 1958 in Budapest Hungary) had to consider the creation of a committee on electrical measurements, a topic of great significance and absent from the list of TCs. It is noteworthy that all the members of this group were experts in the field of electrical measurements, except Fiok who was professor of measurement on radio engineering devices. As I wrote above, the TC4 concerning microwave measurements had operated until 1984 when it was dissolved

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as the result of inactivity. There were several reasons of this inactivity, we have to consider that in the era of the Cold War, after the Second World War, both America and the Soviet Union used all kinds of propaganda in order to ensure that their populations would consider ‘‘the others’’ as enemies and support their own government. At the same time the advances in the microwave techniques were treated as top secret. The proposal of changing the name of TC4 from ‘‘Microwave Measurements’’ to ‘‘Electrical Measurements’’ was officially presented by Adam Fiok on behalf of Polish Member Organization in May 1983 during the 26th session of IMEKO General Council in Prague, when it was also planned to celebrate IMEKO’s 25th anniversary by a 2-day festive session in Budapest, the birthplace of Confederation. The General Council created an ad hoc commission composed of the same members who had shared the idea in Berlin West, with the task of preparing a detailed proposal dealing with the new TC. Zingales kept the promise made during the Congress in Moscow and in May 1984 he organized a TC7 Symposium ‘‘Measurement and Estimation’’ in Bressanone, the university town for summer courses of the ‘‘Università di Padova’’, with in mind to gather all the members of the commission together to hold a decisive meeting and write the scope of the new committee. Unfortunately Kneller was absent and Zingales proposed to ask Italo Gorini to join the group, what was done. Italo willingly accepted the invitation to become a member of the group. The commission had a long meeting during the Symposium. At the end of this meeting, the text containing the TC4 topics was approved and only minor changes were made by the General Council in the version published in the IMEKO Address Book. Therefore we can consider Adam Fiok, Italo Gorini, Wladimir Kneller, Jean Weiler and Giuseppe Zingales the founding members of TC4. The most important changes made by the General Council to the original text concerned the title from ‘‘Electrical Measurements’’ replaced by ‘‘Measurement of Electrical Quantities’’ and the introduction into the text of the phrase ‘‘excluding the microwave field’’ (for more details [3]). The aim of the General Council was clearly to limit the frequency range of the new TC 4. This limitation was the result of both the bad experience with the old TC4 and the aim to avoid interference with TC2 on photon-detectors. Whereas Weiler was a supporter of this limitation, Fiok strongly criticized it immediately after the publication of the IMEKO address book. He first expressed his strong dissent in 1985 at the 10th World Congress in Prague during the first TC4 round table and subsequently made further harsh criticisms. I had to act as a mediator between Jean and Adam in the following years. Among my memories of the Symposium in Bressanone I would like to recall the interesting invited lecture on epistemological problems by Cunietti [4], the Father of the Italian ‘‘Measurement Day’’. As is well known, epistemology is devoted to study the nature of knowledge. It is relevant to the measurement process because measurement is a specific kind of knowledge, giving information on the state of the quantity under measurement by using appropriate instruments. This topic is traditionally discussed during the Measurement Day, which is an annual meeting previously held in Como and now in Rome, where engineers, metrologists,

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philosophers, statisticians and natural scientists come together to discuss logical fundamentals of measurement science. By a lucky coincidence Jean Weiler, Johan Schoukens and I happened together in the same small but beautiful hotel, while the majority of participants had chosen the Hotel Elephant which is the most famous and comfortable in Bressanone. In the evenings after the Symposium and in the mornings during breakfast we had the opportunity to talk about our research. Schoukens and I realized we had the same interest in the field of spectral analysis [5,6]. We discussed our papers and exchanged ideas, for example I suggested to him that the use of special windows might simplify his mathematical process. Weiler appreciated our research and publicly expressed this appreciation after my presentation. From that moment on my academic career took off. Jean was very famous and considered one of the greatest experts in the field of electrical measurements: he was a farsighted man and this is the reason why I followed him and I shared all his ideas.

3. The first Symposia The venue for the 1st Symposium on ‘‘Noise in Electrical Measurement’’ was Villa Olmo in Como, a beautiful town on the lake with the same name in North Italy. Giuseppe Zingales asked Arnaldo Brandolini from the ‘‘Politecnico di Milano’’ to organize the conference in the same place as the Italian Measurement Day. The date, 19–21 June 1986, also coincided with the period in which the Day was usually held. The Symposium was a success. Several topics concerned the noise not only from the point of view of characterization, measurement and reduction techniques in analog and digital signal processing, but also considering the noise as a signal for diagnostics by noise. Also electromagnetic compatibility in measurements was inserted in the topics. The first stage of a measurement system is based on a sensor, which is generally characterized by a very low power level of the measurand signal. Therefore the presence of noise and disturbances should be avoided or reduced, because it could swamp the signal which contains the useful information. Several colleagues proposed new signal processing algorithms for greatly enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio, such as some based on band-width reduction, as well as averaging or integrating techniques. During the presentation of my paper [7] many participants intervened in what was not simply a discussion, but rather a dispute. One colleague was especially aggressive in insisting that I must check my results. At another Symposium, he approached me and apologized for his aggression. I answered him: ‘‘There is no need to apologize. If no one questioned my papers I would worry that they were of no interest, while heated discussion forces me to think about how I can improve my work’’. During the meeting of TC4 in Como Jean Weiler announced his intention of leaving the chairmanship after 3 years, although the IMEKO ‘‘Constitution and by – laws’’ allows the Chairman to be reappointed not more than twice. The 2nd Symposium was held in Warsaw, POLAND, May 26–28, 1987 on the topic of ‘‘Industrial Measurement of

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Electrical and Electronic Component and Equipment’’. Adam Fiok, the TC4 scientific secretary, was the organizer. The topics of the Symposium were the measurement of: materials and components; networks and equipment; electrical machines; power and signal parameters. In those years the energy crisis led to an increased interest both in the reduction of machine losses and in efficiency test methods. Various test methods and many rigorous and approximate techniques were proposed for increasing the precision in the determination of efficiency. Many colleagues underlined that accurate measurements of all electrical quantities are needed for characterization and control of electrical drives, particularly when very large harmonics are injected into power systems owing to the increasing use of semiconductor devices. As is clear from the Symposium topics, TC4 was oriented toward low-frequency measurements, although Adam Fiok presented a paper on microwave measurements. It is noteworthy that for the first time a paper on analog to digital converters (ADC) was presented by Michaeli [8]. From that time on there was a rapid growth in the use of ADC in microcomputer-based measurement instruments and an increasing interest in it within TC4.

compensation filters. The research had a considerable following, especially in Italy and the Czech Republic, under the guidance of Milos Sedlacek. In those years the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and the Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) were easily implemented in dedicated instruments to perform accurate time–frequency analysis on power systems, characterized by typically non-sinusoidal and non-stationary signals. New algorithms, based on optimized interpolation formulas to reduce the leakage during instantaneous frequency changes, allowed instruments to attain high levels of accuracy, flexibility and efficiency. Among my recollections of that World Congress there is the much appreciated performance of our Chairman Jean Weiler during the rodeo. After the Congress we had the opportunity to visit the laboratories of NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) in Gaithersburg near to Washington. It is noteworthy that 1988 was the year in which the Institute changed the best known name of National Bureau of Standard (NBS) established in 1901.

4. The jubilee of the strain gauge and the harmonic analysis

The 3rd Symposium on ‘‘Measurement in Electrical and Electronic Power Systems’’ was held in Zurich, Switzerland, September 20–22, 1989, organized by Jean Weiler. The topics of the Symposium were: measuring devices; main’s measurement; power definition and measurement; special problems; special instrumentation. As is clear from the topics, also this Symposium was oriented toward lowfrequency measurements. It is noteworthy that during the TC4 meeting, as he had promised in Como, Jean left the Chairmanship to Adam Fiok and was appointed TC4 Honorary Chairman. The 4th Symposium on ‘‘Intelligent Measurement of Electrical and Magnetic Quantities’’ was held in Varna, Bulgaria, November 15–17, 1990. In spite of some logistical problems, the Symposium was a success. As is evident from the title of the Symposium, Varna can be considered an important milestone for the change in the topics of the TC4 events. In that period there was a trend identified in the field of ‘‘computer science’’ and many papers, as well as mine [9], were presented with special reference to the smart instrumentation. In those years, new diagnostic algorithms were proposed as low cost computer-based instrumentation was available. New measurement methods were also presented in both time and frequency domain. The majority of them was in the frequency domain using either sinusoidal or noise signals. The major issue was the growing number of sensor and actuators integrated in the smart devices allowing for fidelity and robustness of the instruments. In 1991 for the first time an IMEKO event was organized in China from 5 to 10 September. At that time China was beginning to open up to the international free market, as Giuseppe Zingales, then the incoming President of IMEKO, emphasized during the opening ceremony. During the Congress there were two sessions devoted to TC4, with particularly emphasis on the keynote paper written by Fiok

In 1988, from 16 to 21 October, for the first time the 11th World Congress in Huston, Texas, USA, was organized in conjunction with the 43rd Annual Conference and Exhibition of ISA, the Instrument Society of America, which is the world’s largest professional body for the instrumentation industry. The Congress also celebrated the jubilee of the strain gauge. The first commercial strain sensors, consisting of electrical resistances, were introduced between 1930 and 1938. The actual invention of the electrical resistance strain gauges, by two independent U.S. researchers E. E. Simmons of the California Institute of Technology and A. C. Ruge of M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) dates back to 1938. They had the idea of using thin metal wires for the realization of the strain gauge. Simmons used constantan glued onto a piece of paper, which served as a support on the structure to be controlled. The year 1938 is important because it is considered by many the birth of industrial sensors. During the Congress Jean Weiler organized a round table for the TC4 on ‘‘Electrical Quantities with special emphasis on Harmonic, Inter-Harmonics and Transients’’. I took part in the roundtable with only other two colleagues: Jean Weiler and Istvàn Kollàr. There was not much time to organize the event. So, at the end, rather than a round table it was similar to a normal presentation of two papers. During the roundtable particular attention was paid to measurements on power systems based on harmonic analyses, which were very important tasks in industrial power systems due to the negative effects of harmonics on transformers, rotating machines, capacitor banks and relays. Harmonic identification is useful both for obtaining a better characterization of electrical machinery under non-sinusoidal conditions and for designing

5. From the power measurement to the smart instrumentation

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and Weiler, inherent to the measurements on electrical systems [10]. 6. Scientists have sometimes heated discussions The 5th Symposium on ‘‘Electrical Measuring Instruments for Low and Medium Frequencies’’, organized by W. Wehrmann, Austrian member of TC4, was held in Vienna, Austria, April 8–10 1992. The chairmanship of Adam Fiok led to the emergence of a wider range of topics. Partly owing to the attractive venue, the 4th Symposium saw an increase in the number of paper presented to almost a hundred. Adam tried to increase the frequency range of the measurements in our Committee, so there was one topic relative to broadband measurements, along with traditional ones such as electrical, magnetic and electrostatic measurements. During the Symposium I had a heated discussion with István Kollár. I opened a Session by presenting a paper concerning the filtering techniques [11]. István criticized the technique presented, considering it to be too elaborate and time consuming, and invited me to compare it with what he had proposed in his paper [12]. I did something that a clever scientist should never do: in a moment of pride I forgot that we must be humble and accept criticism from colleagues. I answered rudely and told him he was probably not familiar with the latest international research in the field. I did not mean what I said; in fact I subsequently took István’s suggestion into account and became convinced I should leave that type of research. Fortunately after the presentation István and I had the opportunity to clear the air and 4 years later we co-operated amicably in the preparation of the 8th TC4 Symposium in Budapest. 7. The Electromagnetic Compatibility Testing The 6th Symposium on ‘‘Intelligent Instrumentation for Remote and On-Site Measurements’’ was held in Brussels, BELGIUM, May 12–13 1993. The official organizer of the Symposium was Damien Burin, who unfortunately died on August 1992, so Christian Eugene, his replacement, took over all the duties connected with the Symposium. Christian Eugene had been elected Chairman of the Belgian Member Organization of IMEKO. He was able to make the Symposium a success. The number of topics increased as almost never before; they included intelligent instrumentation and sensors, based on optical fibers and non-contact devices, together with remote measurements and networking, consisting of radio-wave telemetry and field busses. For the first time the topic of optical fibers was discussed during the Symposium. The use of optical fibers for sensors and sensing systems increased rapidly in those years, even if few systems have already been put to practical use. The application areas of greater enforcement were the pollution monitoring, the highly sensitive acoustic as well as the magnetic and rotation systems. For the first time I took part in a TC4 meeting in place of Italo Gorini, deputy chairman of TC4. I was distressed by Italo’s serious illness and it was only because our great friendship that I agreed to temporarily replace him on

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the Committee. The first part of the meeting was devoted to select the paper which would win the Damien Burin Award that had been established by the Belgian Member Organization to commemorate Damien. The general consensus was that the award should go to the paper presented by my dear friend Alessandro Ferrero [13], inherent to the traditional topic of three-phase systems under non-sinusoidal conditions. In the second part of the meeting the discussion focused on the proposal by the Austrian MO to create a new Technical Committee on Electromagnetic Compatibility Testing. The proposal had been outlined during the 35th Session of the General Council held in Vienna the year before. After long discussion the final resolution was: ‘‘EMC problems are being studied in many large well established international bodies. A number of international scientific conferences with numerous participants are being regularly and traditionally organized by these bodies. The number of experts in EMC testing is limited and most of them are working in other circles connected with EMC, so there is a little chance of obtaining wide resonance for a new Committee’’.

8. The scope of TC4 and the birth of the Workshop on ADC Modeling In September of 1993 my dear friend Italo Gorini, Deputy Chairman of TC4, died. In agreement with the Italian MO he had proposed I became his replacement and successor in all his function within TC4. Adam Fiok had asked the IMEKO Technical board and General Council to nominate me officially as deputy Chairman of TC4. With the unanimous favorable opinion of all TC4 members I was nominated Deputy Chairman of TC4. Franco Cabiati and I cooperated with Adam in writing the TC4 keynote paper [14], an overview on the metrological aspects of digital instrumentation, to be presented at the 13th World Congress in Torino, ITALY, September 5–9, 1994. During the TC4 meeting Adam Fiok proposed three new members: Linus Michaeli from Slovakia, Sabin Ozgul from Turkey and Antonio Serra from Portugal. All of them were accepted, but Jean Weiler, always respectful of the rules, posed the problem that Portugal had not got a MO within IMEKO. Because he appreciated Serra, he proposed to accept him on the Committee unless there was a General Council opposition (for more details [15]). Adam took the opportunity of the new IMEKO Expertise Service for trying to include those activities regarding the whole range of frequencies into the scope of the TC4. I went and talked to Jean to try to convince him, but he was firmly opposed to what Adam wanted. At last I tried to mediate and proposed with Weiler, Cabiati and Henderson the following sentence as the scope of TC4: ‘‘All problems connected with measurements on electrical and electronic physical systems as well as electrical and electronic measuring techniques and instrumentation’’. It is noteworthy that during the meeting the committee accepted the proposal submitted by Linus Michaeli (absent) and on his behalf by Pasquale Daponte of organizing a Workshop on the ADC in Slomenice. Initially the title should be ‘‘ADC Modeling and

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Virtual Instrumentation’’, but the Committee decided to delete the last two words. The 7th Symposium on ‘‘Modern Electrical and Magnetic Measurement’’ was held in Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC, September 13–14 1995. The Symposium was organized by Milos Sedlacek and all of the TC4 members stressed the importance of this Symposium, where more than one hundred of papers were presented (120) and the scientific level was very high. There were three very interesting invited lectures presented by Schumny [16], Dado [17] and Weiler [18], concerning the digital measurement systems, the new sensors and the possibility to teach or not the electrical measurements. The characteristic of measuring instruments for solving several measurement processing tasks was underlined with particular applications to electrical power systems, pointing out the simple manner of operation and the high values of measurement accuracy and fidelity. These instruments have the particular advantage of easily implementing digital filters to suppress the frequencies relative to noise and disturbances. A number of social events was organized and all the participants admired the sites of Prague, but unfortunately Milos Sedlacek had to change the location for the gala dinner as the result of a bomb scare. As agreed in Torino, the 1st Workshop on ‘‘ADC Modeling’’ was organized in Smolenice Castle, SLOVAKIA, May 7– 9 1996, organized by Linus Michaeli. This was the first event for the Working Group on ADC, which was by this time known and esteemed in the world. The Group’s work raised the profile of TC4 in the following years. The considerable drastic reduction of costs and increasing flexibility achieved in the fields of both electronic technology and digital signal processing were modifying the basic architecture of the measurement devices and the idea itself of measuring. The new trend was to set up very complex automated measurement systems by interfacing comparatively cheap digital instruments, analog-to-digital conversion boards and personal computers. The Group had to study the problem arising from the question of how the ADC could modify a generic signal applied to the instrument and define test standards. Olli Aumala, then IMEKO President took part in the Workshop and he was impressed by the high level of the discussion. He stressed the importance of continuing the experience and suggested presenting ‘‘A European Project for a proposal of ADC Standardization’’. The President promised IMEKO support and backed the initiative.

trends in digital measuring instruments [19], where the role of digital tools in the field not only of physics and engineering, but also of human and social life, was underlined. In those years there was a drastic reduction of costs and an increasing flexibility in dedicated applications by data-processing computerized instruments, characterized by mixed hardware–software, mechanical–electrical and analog– digital design. Particularly the VXIbus allowed measuring instruments to extend the frequency range and to improve data acquisition. The trend was to conceive an instrument as a data-processing system, which acquires the physical variable and yields information necessary to determine the desired figures. The TC4 meeting approved the ‘‘European Project for a proposal of ADC Standardization’’. Michaeli proposed also the establishment of a Working Group on ADC and DAC within TC4. I agreed and proposed Michaeli and Daponte as co-ordinators of the Working Group (WG). The 2nd IMEKO Workshop on ADC Modeling and Testing was held during the 14th World Congress in Tampere, Finland, June 1–2 1997. The Workshop was a success with a final round table on European projects, which was co-ordinated by Harald Schumny and Pasquale Arpaia. Michaeli suggested promoting links with industry, system integrators, final users and IEEE experts in the field of ADC. Zingales stressed that also the performance of ADC in transient conditions should be explicitly considered. The normal term for the TC4 chairmanship, as decided by TC4 members in Como, had been exceeded by Adam Fiok. Given that Adam was absent, during the TC4 meeting Jean Weiler proposed I was appointed ‘‘Acting Chairman’’ of TC4. The proposal was accepted unanimously. In the light of their active participation at the previous TC4 Symposia Milos Sedlacek and Antonio Serra were proposed by Jean Weiler as deputy chairman and secretary of TC4 respectively, with effect from the following year under my chairmanship. In those years there were many suggestions on how to improve the activity of TC4. In particular Weiler and Zingales asked for Electro-Magnetic Compatibility (EMC) to be included in the topics for the next TC4 Symposia and for a round table to be organized for the next world Congress in Osaka with a view to setting up a Working Group on EMC.

9. The trend in digital measuring instruments

The 9th Symposium on ‘‘Electrical Instruments in Industry’’ was organized in Glasgow, SCOTLAND, September 8–9 1997, by Ian A. Henderson and Joseph McGhee. Adam Fiok had the license received by the General Council to organize a Symposium in the same year as the World Congress, but given his health problems he could not take part in the event. Even it was held in the same year as the World Congress, the Symposium had a good success, with a total of 63 papers presented and at the end I concluded that Lord Kelvin would be happy for the results obtained during our work, because the growth of automation in electrical instruments which are used in industry was deeply investigated during the Symposium.

The 8th Symposium on ‘‘New Measurements and Calibration Methods of Electrical Quantities and Instruments’’ was held in Budapest, HUNGARY, September 16–17 1996. The Symposium was organized by Istvàn Zoltàn and Istvàn Kollàr. Unfortunately in that period Adam Fiok had a serious problem with his leg and stayed in hospital several times. Then I was actively involved in the organization of the Symposium. I was supported in this job, as for the scientific part, by Istvàn Kollàr, even though he felt a little stressed because of too many commitments he had. I opened the Symposium with an invited paper on the

10. The problem of EMC testing and the wireless communication field

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The TC4 meeting was devoted to discuss the problem of the Working Group on ‘‘Measurements for EMC’’. In perspective, the establishment of a TC4 Subcommittee with the same title was taken into account. Also the resolution assumed by TC4 during the meeting in Brussels was recalled, when the proposal was withdrawn because the subject had already been dealt with in several specific conferences and reviews. However the reconsideration was justified by the increasing interest in EMC measurements, also connected with requirement and testing for quality. The social program included a Banquet at the Strathclyed Business School and a technical visit to the Torness nuclear power station. The 10th Symposium ‘‘Development in Digital Measuring Instrumentation’’ was held in Naples, ITALY, September 17–18 1998. Adam Fiok did not want Naples as the venue of the Symposium because his sister had been robbed on the streets of Naples. I insisted on the site and the Symposium was that with the highest number of participants. The success was due to the active collaboration of my friends Massimo D’Apuzzo e Antonio Langella. Adam Fiok was absent and I, as Acting Chairman, replaced him in all commitments, opening and closing the Symposium. The working Group on ADC and DAC Metrology organized the third Workshop allowing involved partners to meet each other and develop common research projects. The Workshop highlighted that the problem of ADC and DAC characterization was of interest not only to manufacturers but mainly to system integrators as well as end users. Moreover researchers and technicians needed a definition of a specific standard concerning modeling and testing of ADC and DAC based measuring devices. According to the political European integration, the IMEKO TC-4 Working Group proposed a European Project for ADCbased device Standardization (EUPAS). The co-ordinators of this project were Harald Schumny and Pasquale Arpaia. During the TC4 meeting, my official capacity passed from Acting Chairman to TC4 Chairman. As we decided during the meeting in Tampere, Milos Sedlacek and Antonio Serra were elected TC4 Deputy Chairman and Scientific Secretary of TC4 respectively. I confirmed that all the terms of office had to be limited to 3 years. Adam Fiok was appointed Honorary Chairman. I asked Ludwik Finkelstein to replace me with Pasquale Daponte in the Editorial Board of Measurement, so that I would not be too busy and could concentrate my activity on the Chairmanship. As first point of my Chairmanship I asked to discuss the problem of extending the finality of TC4 to the wireless communication field, also considering that the previous preclusion with respect to high frequency did not longer exist. As second point I tried to increase the co-operation between IMEKO and IEEE that was activated with my presence in charge of program co-chair of the IEEE Annual Conference on Instrumentation and Measurements, which was held in May of the same year in Venice and had the sponsorship of TC4. I asked also my friend Alessandro Ferrero to promote a meeting among persons in charge of the IMEKO and IEEE. Alessandro told me that unfortunately the meeting had been a flop, especially because of some disagreement among English and US colleagues.

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11. The importance of standards Even though I asked my friend Luigino Benetazzo for help in organizing a Round Table on ‘‘Measurements for EMC’’ during the World Congress in Osaka, Japan (June 13–18 1999) it was impossible. As there were too few people interested in, I decided to delete the event. During the TC4 meeting we commemorated the death of Jean Weiler. He was the Swiss delegate to the IMEKO General Council from 1972 to 1996 and its Treasurer for 20 years. He was the Father of TC4 besides an excellent scientist with an elegant and culturally vital life. In particular he was interested in measurements on power lines in nonsinusoidal conditions and was often severe regarding many papers which did not bring any valuable contribution to that research. During the TC4 meeting we continued to discuss about the future activities in the field of wireless communication and in general in the field of telecommunica- tions. The 4th Workshop on ‘‘ADC Modeling and Testing’’ was held in Bordeaux, FRANCE, September 9–10 1999. The Workshop was organized by Philippe Marchegay and Dominique Dallet. It was the second IMEKO event in France after the 5th IMEKO World Congress held in Versailles in 1970. The Workshop highlighted that the structural and functional complexity has represented some of the most important concerns to face with in the ADC and DAC metrology. The knowledge of ADC’s metrological characteristics is basic information to improve the quality and the reliability of the overall measuring system. Many algorithms and testing methodologies were presented to outline and monitor the ADC behavior, to validate the proposed models or sub-models, to evaluate the relative different errors and to take into account a possible correction through software. The 5th Workshop on ‘‘ADC Modeling and Testing’’ was held during the 16th World Congress in Wien, AUSTRIA, September 26–28 2000. I was invited by Linus Michaeli to present a keynote [20]. We came back to Wien after 8 years and commemorated the death of Adam Fiok. I recalled Adam Fiok’s personality from the human and scientific point of view; in particular I described Adam Fiok’s commitments for both creation and improvement of TC4. For many years he had been a member of the General Council and of ‘‘Measurement’’ editorial board. He had been initiator, founder, Chairman for many years (1989– 1998) and Honorary Chairman (since 1998) of TC4. Finally, I said that the best way to honor his memory was to continue his work in order to reinforce TC4 activities. During the Congress the EUPAS meeting was presented by Harald Schumny its Main-Coordinator to the auditorium as a worldwide spread interest group for supporting standardization efforts in the field of digital measurement, to develop joint or common projects and to apply for financial support. Not only the activity was documented by lots of scientific publications and presentations at conferences and workshops, but it also resulted in official cooperation agreements with IEEE TC10 and IEE. Thomas Linnenbrink, chairman of IEEE TC10 ADC subcommittee, explained the status of the IEEE Standards and made a call for active

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participation. The work and results achieved by Vladimir Haasz (in former cooperation with PTB Berlin) led to ask TC10 to henceforth include definitions for the electromagnetic compatibility of components and plug-in boards in upcoming standards. 12. The advancement of measurement science for the peace The 11th Symposium on ‘‘Trends in Electrical Measurements and Instrumentation’’ was held in Lisbon PORTUGAL, September 13–14 2001. I asked to insert into the topics of the Symposium ‘‘HF measurement and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) from the point of view of measurement’’ in order to enlarge the frequency spectrum and verify the possibility of organizing a Working Group on EMC. During the Symposium it was highlighted that a primary problem in modern measurement instruments is the uncertainty qualification, including testing, calibration and diagnosis, because many manufacturers advertise their products without giving any information about accuracy and resolution. A specific discussion was reserved to a multi-faceted problem with many aspects: also a powerful and sophisticated measurement system is not suitable if it is impossible to quantify the associated measurement uncertainty. The Symposium was scheduled 2 days after the Twin Towers tragedy (Days of Terror). Antonio Serra was worried, but all members overcame their fear and participated in the Symposium which was a success. During the welcome address, I said we were near to all US people and in particular to the relatives of the innocent victims of such barbarian terrorist attacks. The civilized world cannot accept this horror, which has upsets our life. Thousands of lives were lost or terribly struck during the attacks. I asked myself what we could have done. The answer was: we must condemn terrorism. All the international associations of scientists work for peace in the world, which is the best response to all kinds of violence. Through our work we seek to advance measurement science and this will allow our conscience to grow and will allow us to pass it on other people. We must continue to work with passion for improving scientific knowledge, without hate and anger. In this way we will contribute to spread science in the world to enlarge not only the market but also peace. As in several parts of the world, at eleven o’clock of the 14 September (that local time corresponds to midday in other European Countries) I invited all the participants to recall the victims of the barbarian attacks with 3 min of silence. I said that moment was the first response of pacifists against the terrorism. Our TC4 has always worked and continues to work for contributing to overcome frontiers and favor the dialog among people from different countries. During the TC4 meeting I recalled that in Naples the terms of office within our Committee had been limited to 3 years. Milos Sedlacek, who had accepted to be appointed as TC4 Chairman, asked for 1 year to organize his job and academic commitments. At the end, the Committee decided to nominate the new Chairman, the Deputy Chairman and the Scientific Secretary of TC4 during the following Symposium in Zagreb.

13. The development of Data Acquisition Systems The 7th Workshop on ‘‘ADC Modeling and Testing’’ was held in Prague, Czech Republic, June 26–28 2002. Vladimir Haasz was able to organize the joint 7th Workshop on ADC Modeling and Testing and 4th ADDA Conference, in spite of the difficulty of co-operation with IEE, although its necessity for the whole IMEKO. Due to the increasing importance of data acquisition systems (DAS) which interface between the worlds of analog physical and chemical parameters and of digital computation and control, the TC4 decided to organize a Summer School on this topic. During the meeting L.Michaeli reported the positive results from the 2nd Summer School on DAS. Particular emphasis was laid on the possibility of setting-up new measurement instruments using digital circuits, which were low cost, accurate and relatively simple to implement. The process of data acquisition (DAQ) for measuring an electrical or physical phenomenon uses analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) converters in combination with sensors inside a modular hardware, and requires also flexible software to obtain measurement or control systems for several and specific applications in the fields of information and communication technologies (ICT), electromechanical industries, civil engineering, smart devices for homes and future cities. The 12th International Symposium on ‘‘Electrical Measurements and Instrumentation’’ was held in Zagreb, Croatia, September 25–27 2002 and was organized by Mladen Borsic. During the TC4 meeting the members declared Milos Sedlacek as new Chairman, Antonio Serra as new Deputy Chairman, and Pasquale Daponte as new Scientific Secretary of the IMEKO TC4. The new Chairman, Deputy Chairman, and Secretary thanked the TC4 Board for its confidence and invited the TC4 members to appoint me as Honorary Chairman.

14. Conclusion I close this paper with the new scope of TC4: ‘‘The objectives of TC4 deal with Electrical Measurements in the broad sense, i.e. including both power and high frequency measurements which are of vital importance in various fields of science and technology. Progress in the domain of electrical measurement science and instrumentation is very fast: it continually offers new possibilities in accuracy and speed of measurement’’. As you can see the high frequency is integral part of TC4 scope, so Adam can rest in peace. References [1] I. Gorini, The metrological description of transducers, in: Proceedings of VIII IMEKO World Congress, Moscow, May, 1979. [2] A Bray, Recent achievements and new trends in the dissemination of the standards of measurement units, in: Proceedings of VIII IMEKO World Congress, Moscow, May, 1979. [3] M. Savino, The history of the technical committee 4 of IMEKO on measurement of electrical quantities. The first part, in: Proceedings of the XVII IMEKO TC4 International Symposium and XV International Workshop on ADC Modelling and Testing, Kosice, Slovak Rep., September 8–10, 2010.

M. Savino / Measurement 45 (2012) 2185–2193 [4] M. Cunietti, Some epistemological problems related to measurement, in: Proceedings of IMEKO Symposium on Measurement and Estimation TC7, Bressanone, May, 1984. [5] J. Schoukens, A high accuracy network analyser with the use of a digitiser and the IFFT, in: Proceedings of IMEKO Symposium on Measurement and Estimation TC7, Bressanone, May, 1984. [6] G. Acciani, M. Savino, A FFT-based digital instrument for nonsinusoidal systems, in: Proceedings of IMEKO Symposium on Measurement and Estimation TC7, Bressanone, May, 1984. [7] G. Andria, M. Savino, Noise measurement for estimation of voltage and frequency fluctuations in power systems, in: Proc. of IMEKO Int. Symp. on Noise in Electrical Measurements, Como, June 19–21, 1986, pp. 105–111. [8] L. Michaeli, Computer simulation of autocalibration for successive approximation AD-converter, in: Proceedings of 2nd TC4 Symposium on ‘‘Industrial Measurement of Electrical and Electronic Components and Equipment’’, Warsaw, Poland, May 26–28, 1987. [9] G. Andria, M. Savino, A. Trotta, Intelligent electrical measurements in frequency domain, in: IMEKO TC4 4th Int. Symp. on ‘‘Intelligent Measurement of Electrical and Magnetic Quantities’’, Varna, Bulgaria, November 15–17, 1990. [10] A. Fiok, J. Weiler, New approaches in the measurement of electrical systems, in: XII IMEKO World Congress, China, September 5–10, 1991. [11] G. Andria, M. De Sario, M. Savino, A. Trotta, Filtering techniques to improve the design of low-frequency digital instrumentation, in: Proc. of the 5th IMEKO TC4 Int. Symp. on Electrical Measuring Instruments for Low and Medium Frequencies, Vienna, Austria, April 8–10, 1992. [12] I. Kollár, System identification in the frequency domain with Matlab, in: Proc. of the 5th IMEKO TC4 Int. Symp. on Electrical Measuring

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Instruments for Low and Medium Frequencies, Vienna, Austria, April 8–10, 1992. L. Cristaldi, A. Ferrero, R. Ottoboni, Current components measurement for the identification of the source of distortion in three-phase systems under nonsinusoidal conditions, in: Proc. of the 6th IMEKO TC-4 Int. Symp. on Intelligent Instrumentation for Remote and On-Site Measurements, Brussels, Belgium, May 12–13, 1993. A. Fiok, F. Cabiati, M. Savino, Industrial and metrological aspects of digital instrumentation (key-note), in: Proc. of the XIII IMEKO World Congress, Torino, Italy, September 5–9, 1994, pp. 473–483. M. Savino, The history of the technical committee 4 of IMEKO on measurement of electrical quantities. Part two, in: Proceedings of the XVII IMEKO TC4 International Symposium and XV International Workshop on ADC Modelling and Testing, Natal, 2011. H. Schumny, Digital measurement systems, in: Proc. of the 7th IMEKO TC-4 Int. Symp. on ‘‘Modern Electrical and Magnetic Measurement’’, Prague, Czech Republic, September 13–14, 1995. S. Dado, Will sensors always be a bottleneck in measurement systems? in: Proc. of the 7th IMEKO TC-4 Int. Symp. on ‘‘Modern Electrical and Magnetic Measurement’’, Prague, Czech Republic, September 13–14, 1995. J. Weiler, Can measurement be taught? in: Proc. of the 7th IMEKO TC-4 Int. Symp. on ‘‘Modern Electrical and Magnetic Measurement’’, Prague, Czech Republic, September 13–14, 1995. M. Savino, Trends in digital measuring instruments (tutorial), in: Proc. of the IMEKO/’96 8-th TC-4 Symposium, Budapest September 16–17, 1996, pp. 1–8. M. Savino, The problem of the standard characterization of ADC and digitizing waveform recorderers, in: Proceedings of XV International Workshop on ADC Modelling and Testing, Vienna, Austria, September 25–28, 2000.