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Walter Slavin: a personal tribute
Spectrochimica Acta Part B 56 Ž2001. 1487᎐1489
Walter Slavin: a personal tribute J.B. Willis 211 Orrong Road, St. Kilda East, Victoria 3183, Australia
I am very pleased to accept Dr Omenetto’s invitation to contribute an article to this special issue of Spectrochimica Acta Part B in honour of Walter Slavin. I have known Walter for 40 years, both as a scientific colleague and as a personal friend, and it is a pleasure to recollect and set down some of our interactions over that time. I feel that to some extent I am also writing on behalf of the late Sir Alan Walsh, who had even more contact with Walter than I did, and would certainly have appreciated the opportunity to contribute to this special issue. I began work on atomic absorption spectroscopy ŽAAS. in February 1958 as a member of the Spectroscopy Section of the CSIRO Division of Chemical Physics, under the leadership of Alan Walsh, the inventor of the atomic absorption spectrometer. As explained in an article in the Alan Walsh Memorial Issue of Spectrochimica Acta Part B, w1x, my first essay in this field was to develop an atomic absorption method for the determination of calcium in blood serum which would be competitive with existing methods. The American firm of Perkin-Elmer had indicated that it would be interested in manufacturing an AAS
instrument suitable for this analysis, and in November 1959 it was granted a license to use the CSIRO patent on AAS. During the next 2 or 3 years I was engaged both in developing flame AAS methods for determining metals in various materials and in improving the instrumentation for doing so. It was at this stage that I made my first contact with Walter, though it was not until April 1963 that I actually met him, on my first visit to Perkin-Elmer at Norwalk, Connecticut. Right from the beginning there was excellent communication between the CSIRO group and the technical people at Perkin-Elmer, which resulted in a constant interchange of information and ideas. This collaboration was a model for the relationship which should exist between the inventorrdeveloper of a new technique and a firm seeking to commercialise it, and was far superior to the interaction that our group had with any of its other overseas licensees. One example is the story Walter himself tells w2x of how the air-acetylene burner originally used in the first Perkin-Elmer atomic absorption spectrometer Žthe Model 214. gave rise to unexpected chemical interferences. He wrote to me about
0584-8547r01r$ - see front matter 䊚 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 5 8 4 - 8 5 4 7 Ž 0 1 . 0 0 2 4 7 - 6
1488
J.B. Willis r Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy 56 (2001) 1487᎐1489
this and I was able to send him by return mail one of the tubular burners we had developed at CSIRO. This design of burner immediately enabled the interferences to be overcome and became standard on Perkin-Elmer instruments for several years, as well as on the instruments made by the local Australian firm of Techtron Pty Ltd. In October 1961, Walter and his colleague Herbert L. Kahn completed a long and thorough engineering report outlining the design of an instrument intended specifically for atomic absorption measurements, and summarised the applications literature and the potential markets for a commercial atomic absorption instrument which would eventually become the Perkin-Elmer Model 303 w3x. However, the Sales Department of Perkin-Elmer did a market survey and found that there appeared to be insufficient interest among potential users to justify the production of a new instrument. Walter Slavin w2x and Herb Kahn w4x have related how they talked to Walsh and his CSIRO colleagues about this and finally recruited Walsh to help them convince Perkin-Elmer management to allow work to continue on the development of the Model 303. The outstanding success of this instrument, first shown at the March 1963 Pittsburgh Conference, has become legendary. One of the reasons for Perkin-Elmer’s success in producing and selling its early AAS instruments and in helping to popularise the new technique was its willingness to place instruments in the laboratories of key workers in various fields of analysis and to learn from the experience gained there. I think Walter was involved in most of this interaction, and he certainly deserves much of the credit for realising that new and potential customers needed to know in full detail how to accomplish their analyses. This resulted in the production of the Perkin-Elmer ‘Cookbook’, which first appeared in late 1963 and was provided free to all users of PE instruments. Even though I myself was not using PE equipment I found it a very useful resource. Another valuable contribution made by Perkin-Elmer was the establishment in 1962 of a new journal, the Atomic Absorption Newsletter. I believe this was originally the idea of R.E. Reiss,
but Walter contributed many of the articles in the early issues and a little later, after Reiss left Perkin-Elmer, he took over the technical editorship of the journal, a position he held until 1970. The Atomic Absorption Newsletter was unique in several respects: although issued under the auspices of Perkin-Elmer it did not restrict itself to articles describing work done using Perkin-Elmer equipment; it contained both original research and also valuable review articles and bibliographies of atomic absorption work published in the world’s scientific literature; and until mid-1967 was sent free to anyone requesting it. In 1980 it was renamed Atomic Spectroscopy and to this day continues as a respected journal in the field of analytical chemistry by atomic spectrometric methods. Walter wrote what I regard as by far the best of the earlier books on atomic absorption spectroscopy w5x. During the writing of this book he and I had considerable correspondence, and I am pleased that I was able to help him clarify several difficult sections of it. I still have occasion to refer to the book, and have always regretted that it has not been brought up to date since the second edition w6x in 1978, which was a rewritten version by Walter’s father, Morris Slavin. Like Alan Walsh, Walter was quick to realise the potential for practical analysis in the work of Boris L’vov on the graphite furnace as an atom source w7x, and from approximately 1967 onwards, collaborated closely with L’vov, in much the same way as he had done with the CSIRO group a few years earlier. In 1970, Perkin-Elmer produced its first commercial furnace, the HGA-70, and Walter kindly arranged for me to have one on loan for evaluation, which enabled me to gain experience with this new technique and to explore its possible application to a wide range of analyses. I think Walter hoped that I might take up furnace work in earnest, but I was nearing 50 years of age and beginning to feel that, even if my eyes were still good enough to see the small sample introduction hole in the graphite tube, my hands were getting too unsteady to insert the sample accurately into it! ŽAutomatic sample introduction had not yet arrived.. So I remained with flame spectroscopy.
J.B. Willis r Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy 56 (2001) 1487᎐1489
For many years, and particularly since his retirement from Perkin-Elmer, Walter has been deeply involved in helping to edit Spectrochimica Acta Part B and I appreciate the interaction I have had with him both as a reviewer of submitted manuscripts and occasionally as an author. I only came to realise fully how much time and energy he has devoted to Spectrochimica Acta when I assisted him as one of the Guest Editors for the Alan Walsh Memorial Issue, published in 1999. On my first visit to the United States, Walter and his wife-to-be, Sabina Sprague, showed me something of New England and stimulated my interest in American history, politics and culture. Since then I have met them at a number of scientific conferences and on their visits to Australia, and have enjoyed staying with them in their delightful home at Ridgefield, Connecticut. I take
1489
this opportunity of wishing them every happiness and success in whatever activities Walter decides to take up after his second ‘retirement’. References w1x J.B. Willis, The early days of atomic absorption spectrometry in clinical chemistry, Spectrochim. Acta Part B 54 Ž1999. 1971᎐1975. w2x W. Slavin, Atomic absorption spectroscopy: why has it become successful? Anal. Chem. 63 Ž1991. 1033A᎐ 1038A. w3x H.L. Kahn, W. Slavin, An atomic absorption spectrophotometer, Appl. Opt. 2 Ž1963. 931᎐936. w4x H.L. Kahn, Some memories of Alan Walsh, Spectrochim. Acta Part B 54 Ž1999. 2057᎐2059. w5x W. Slavin, Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy, Interscience Publishers, New York, 1968. w6x M. Slavin, Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy, 2nd edition, Wiley, New York, 1978. w7x B.V. L’vov, The analytical use of atomic absorption spectra, Spectrochim. Acta 17 Ž1961. 761᎐770.
Walter Slavin: a personal tribute J.B. Willis 211 Orrong Road, St. Kilda East, Victoria 3183, Australia
I am very pleased to accept Dr Omenetto’s invitation to contribute an article to this special issue of Spectrochimica Acta Part B in honour of Walter Slavin. I have known Walter for 40 years, both as a scientific colleague and as a personal friend, and it is a pleasure to recollect and set down some of our interactions over that time. I feel that to some extent I am also writing on behalf of the late Sir Alan Walsh, who had even more contact with Walter than I did, and would certainly have appreciated the opportunity to contribute to this special issue. I began work on atomic absorption spectroscopy ŽAAS. in February 1958 as a member of the Spectroscopy Section of the CSIRO Division of Chemical Physics, under the leadership of Alan Walsh, the inventor of the atomic absorption spectrometer. As explained in an article in the Alan Walsh Memorial Issue of Spectrochimica Acta Part B, w1x, my first essay in this field was to develop an atomic absorption method for the determination of calcium in blood serum which would be competitive with existing methods. The American firm of Perkin-Elmer had indicated that it would be interested in manufacturing an AAS
instrument suitable for this analysis, and in November 1959 it was granted a license to use the CSIRO patent on AAS. During the next 2 or 3 years I was engaged both in developing flame AAS methods for determining metals in various materials and in improving the instrumentation for doing so. It was at this stage that I made my first contact with Walter, though it was not until April 1963 that I actually met him, on my first visit to Perkin-Elmer at Norwalk, Connecticut. Right from the beginning there was excellent communication between the CSIRO group and the technical people at Perkin-Elmer, which resulted in a constant interchange of information and ideas. This collaboration was a model for the relationship which should exist between the inventorrdeveloper of a new technique and a firm seeking to commercialise it, and was far superior to the interaction that our group had with any of its other overseas licensees. One example is the story Walter himself tells w2x of how the air-acetylene burner originally used in the first Perkin-Elmer atomic absorption spectrometer Žthe Model 214. gave rise to unexpected chemical interferences. He wrote to me about
0584-8547r01r$ - see front matter 䊚 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 5 8 4 - 8 5 4 7 Ž 0 1 . 0 0 2 4 7 - 6
1488
J.B. Willis r Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy 56 (2001) 1487᎐1489
this and I was able to send him by return mail one of the tubular burners we had developed at CSIRO. This design of burner immediately enabled the interferences to be overcome and became standard on Perkin-Elmer instruments for several years, as well as on the instruments made by the local Australian firm of Techtron Pty Ltd. In October 1961, Walter and his colleague Herbert L. Kahn completed a long and thorough engineering report outlining the design of an instrument intended specifically for atomic absorption measurements, and summarised the applications literature and the potential markets for a commercial atomic absorption instrument which would eventually become the Perkin-Elmer Model 303 w3x. However, the Sales Department of Perkin-Elmer did a market survey and found that there appeared to be insufficient interest among potential users to justify the production of a new instrument. Walter Slavin w2x and Herb Kahn w4x have related how they talked to Walsh and his CSIRO colleagues about this and finally recruited Walsh to help them convince Perkin-Elmer management to allow work to continue on the development of the Model 303. The outstanding success of this instrument, first shown at the March 1963 Pittsburgh Conference, has become legendary. One of the reasons for Perkin-Elmer’s success in producing and selling its early AAS instruments and in helping to popularise the new technique was its willingness to place instruments in the laboratories of key workers in various fields of analysis and to learn from the experience gained there. I think Walter was involved in most of this interaction, and he certainly deserves much of the credit for realising that new and potential customers needed to know in full detail how to accomplish their analyses. This resulted in the production of the Perkin-Elmer ‘Cookbook’, which first appeared in late 1963 and was provided free to all users of PE instruments. Even though I myself was not using PE equipment I found it a very useful resource. Another valuable contribution made by Perkin-Elmer was the establishment in 1962 of a new journal, the Atomic Absorption Newsletter. I believe this was originally the idea of R.E. Reiss,
but Walter contributed many of the articles in the early issues and a little later, after Reiss left Perkin-Elmer, he took over the technical editorship of the journal, a position he held until 1970. The Atomic Absorption Newsletter was unique in several respects: although issued under the auspices of Perkin-Elmer it did not restrict itself to articles describing work done using Perkin-Elmer equipment; it contained both original research and also valuable review articles and bibliographies of atomic absorption work published in the world’s scientific literature; and until mid-1967 was sent free to anyone requesting it. In 1980 it was renamed Atomic Spectroscopy and to this day continues as a respected journal in the field of analytical chemistry by atomic spectrometric methods. Walter wrote what I regard as by far the best of the earlier books on atomic absorption spectroscopy w5x. During the writing of this book he and I had considerable correspondence, and I am pleased that I was able to help him clarify several difficult sections of it. I still have occasion to refer to the book, and have always regretted that it has not been brought up to date since the second edition w6x in 1978, which was a rewritten version by Walter’s father, Morris Slavin. Like Alan Walsh, Walter was quick to realise the potential for practical analysis in the work of Boris L’vov on the graphite furnace as an atom source w7x, and from approximately 1967 onwards, collaborated closely with L’vov, in much the same way as he had done with the CSIRO group a few years earlier. In 1970, Perkin-Elmer produced its first commercial furnace, the HGA-70, and Walter kindly arranged for me to have one on loan for evaluation, which enabled me to gain experience with this new technique and to explore its possible application to a wide range of analyses. I think Walter hoped that I might take up furnace work in earnest, but I was nearing 50 years of age and beginning to feel that, even if my eyes were still good enough to see the small sample introduction hole in the graphite tube, my hands were getting too unsteady to insert the sample accurately into it! ŽAutomatic sample introduction had not yet arrived.. So I remained with flame spectroscopy.
J.B. Willis r Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy 56 (2001) 1487᎐1489
For many years, and particularly since his retirement from Perkin-Elmer, Walter has been deeply involved in helping to edit Spectrochimica Acta Part B and I appreciate the interaction I have had with him both as a reviewer of submitted manuscripts and occasionally as an author. I only came to realise fully how much time and energy he has devoted to Spectrochimica Acta when I assisted him as one of the Guest Editors for the Alan Walsh Memorial Issue, published in 1999. On my first visit to the United States, Walter and his wife-to-be, Sabina Sprague, showed me something of New England and stimulated my interest in American history, politics and culture. Since then I have met them at a number of scientific conferences and on their visits to Australia, and have enjoyed staying with them in their delightful home at Ridgefield, Connecticut. I take
1489
this opportunity of wishing them every happiness and success in whatever activities Walter decides to take up after his second ‘retirement’. References w1x J.B. Willis, The early days of atomic absorption spectrometry in clinical chemistry, Spectrochim. Acta Part B 54 Ž1999. 1971᎐1975. w2x W. Slavin, Atomic absorption spectroscopy: why has it become successful? Anal. Chem. 63 Ž1991. 1033A᎐ 1038A. w3x H.L. Kahn, W. Slavin, An atomic absorption spectrophotometer, Appl. Opt. 2 Ž1963. 931᎐936. w4x H.L. Kahn, Some memories of Alan Walsh, Spectrochim. Acta Part B 54 Ž1999. 2057᎐2059. w5x W. Slavin, Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy, Interscience Publishers, New York, 1968. w6x M. Slavin, Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy, 2nd edition, Wiley, New York, 1978. w7x B.V. L’vov, The analytical use of atomic absorption spectra, Spectrochim. Acta 17 Ž1961. 761᎐770.