History of EPMA

[ericwgh]

Who reported the first Earth Science material compositions by EPMA?

Anything older than this one?
STUMPFL, E.F. (1961). Some new platinum-rich minerals identified with the electron microanalyser. Mineralog Mag 32, 833–847

Many thanks
Eric

[JonF]

Who reported the first Earth Science material compositions by EPMA?

Anything older than this one?
STUMPFL, E.F. (1961). Some new platinum-rich minerals identified with the electron microanalyser. Mineralog Mag 32, 833–847

Many thanks
Eric

Looking at the Stumpfl article, it references Castaing's 1960 chapter Electron Probe Microanalysis in Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics (https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2539(08)60212-7). In that, there's a section on mineralogy that references some early work on earth science topics:

Guillemin, C. and Capitant, M., (1960) Utilisation de la microsonde électronique de Castaing pour des études minéralogiques, a report from the 21st international geological congress

Castaing, R., and Fredriksson, K., Analyses of cosmic spherules with an X-ray microanalyser Geochim. et Cosmhim. Acta 14, 114 (1958).
https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7037(58)90099-1

Plus a couple from 1957 that I couldn't access.

[AndrewLocock]

Who reported the first Earth Science material compositions by EPMA?

Anything older than this one?
STUMPFL, E.F. (1961). Some new platinum-rich minerals identified with the electron microanalyser. Mineralog Mag 32, 833–847

Many thanks
Eric

Looking at the Stumpfl article, it references Castaing's 1960 chapter Electron Probe Microanalysis in Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics (https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2539(08)60212-7). In that, there's a section on mineralogy that references some early work on earth science topics:

Guillemin, C. and Capitant, M., (1960) Utilisation de la microsonde électronique de Castaing pour des études minéralogiques, a report from the 21st international geological congress

Castaing, R., and Fredriksson, K., Analyses of cosmic spherules with an X-ray microanalyser Geochim. et Cosmhim. Acta 14, 114 (1958).
https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7037(58)90099-1

Plus a couple from 1957 that I couldn't access.

A useful source of some of the early literature is:
B. Banerjee, "Classified Bibliography on Electron Probe X-Ray Microanalysis," in Symposium on Advances in Electron Metallography and Electron Probe Microanalysis, edited by Committee E-4 (West Conshohocken, PA: ASTM International, 10.1520/STP43687S), 207-1962. https://doi.org/978-0-8031-5971-6.
See "Microprobe Analysis, 3. Applications".

Birks & Brooks (1957) mention analysis of a copper-iron mineral and its inclusions, which is subsequently elaborated upon in Birks et al. (1959):
Birks, L.S. and Brooks, E.J., 1957. Electron Probe X‐Ray Microanalyzer. Review of Scientific Instruments, 28(9), pp.709-712.
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1063/1.1715982
Birks, L.S., Brooks, E.J., Adler, I. and Milton, C., 1959. Electron probe analysis of minute inclusions of a copper-iron mineral. American Mineralogist: Journal of Earth and Planetary Materials, 44(9-10), pp.974-978.
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/msa/ammin/article/44/9-10/974/541549/Electron-probe-analysis-of-minute-inclusions-of-a

[probe_ogre]

So maybe I'm dating myself a bit, but I cut my teeth on an ARL EMX-SM in grad school and got more into it (literally) at USGS.  Later, the SEMQ, several JEOL models and an SX50.  Everything but a MAC just about.  I think the early Shimadzu's were a take-off (ha!) on the ARL EMX, EMX-SM.

PS-I am new to this forum; am finally getting around to running PFE.  And my name here may show up as "probe ogre" in deference to a title I once had.

Jim McGee

[John Donovan]

So maybe I'm dating myself a bit, but I cut my teeth on an ARL EMX-SM in grad school and got more into it (literally) at USGS.  Later, the SEMQ, several JEOL models and an SX50.  Everything but a MAC just about.  I think the early Shimadzu's were a take-off (ha!) on the ARL EMX, EMX-SM.

PS-I am new to this forum; am finally getting around to running PFE.  And my name here may show up as "probe ogre" in deference to a title I once had.

Jim McGee

Hi Jim,
Welcome to our EPMA user forum!

Very pleased to hear you are finally getting an opportunity to run Probe for EPMA on a modern EPMA instrument.  Just so you know we do offer remote training modules for Probe for EPMA (and EPMA in general) as described in this topic:

https://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=1297.0

I'll post more on remote training in that topic, but for now you might also want to check out the Shimadzu topic here:

https://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=1275.0

[John Donovan]

Obituary for David Joy who passed away about 3 months ago (see attached).

[rickard]

I am writing a paper where the dates of commercial introduction of EPMAs are important. Does anyone know the dates for the ARL SEMQ-II and EMX-SM  and the JEOL JXA-50A?

[Probeman]

I am writing a paper where the dates of commercial introduction of EPMAs are important. Does anyone know the dates for the ARL SEMQ-II and EMX-SM  and the JEOL JXA-50A?

Check this post from John Fournelle:

https://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=1332.0

[Anette von der Handt]

I am writing a paper where the dates of commercial introduction of EPMAs are important. Does anyone know the dates for the ARL SEMQ-II and EMX-SM  and the JEOL JXA-50A?

The JEOL JXA-50A came out in 1971,

History of JEOL EPMA's (From a talk to honor Dr. Hideyuki Takahashi when he received the MAS Presidential Science Award in 2021)
1959: Kick off (The column was a modified JEM-5A)
1960: Prof Castaing was invited to Japan
1961: JXA-2 (Prototype)
1962: JXA-3 (1st commercial type)
1968: JXA-5
1969: Lunar rocks were analyzed
1971: JXA-50A
1978: JXA-733 (mini-lens)
1982: JCMA-733 (LDE, stage mapping, DEC)
1986: JXA-8600, JXA-8621 (WD/ED)
1994: JXA-8800, JXA8900 (WS, H-type)
2000: JXA-8100, JXA-8200 (Phase, Particle...)
2003: JXA-8500F (1st FE-EPMA)
2009: JXA-8230, JXA-8530F
2019: JXA-iSP100, JXA-iHP200F

[Anette von der Handt]

I am writing a paper where the dates of commercial introduction of EPMAs are important. Does anyone know the dates for the ARL SEMQ-II and EMX-SM  and the JEOL JXA-50A?

This paper could be helpful potentially although it does not give absolute years (but maybe I missed them)

Eklund, R.L., 1981. Bausch & Lomb-ARL: Where We Come From, Who We Are. Applied Spectroscopy, 35(2), pp.226-235. (see attached)

[Anette von der Handt]

Found a bit more in a SEMQ brochure:

Partial History of ARL microprobes:
1953: Introduction of the first ARL X-ray quantometer
1960: Electron Microprobe X-ray Analyzer (EMX)
1963: AMX

[Probeman]

Found a bit more in a SEMQ brochure:

Partial History of ARL microprobes:
1953: Introduction of the first ARL X-ray quantometer
1960: Electron Microprobe X-ray Analyzer (EMX)
1963: AMX

At UC Berkeley we had an ARL SEMQ (#0004).  It arrived  a bit before I did, but I think it was in 1978.  I know Dave Witty helped to design it.

[rickard]

So how does this table look?

                       Year introduced
SEMQ-II   ARL                1978
SX-100   CAMECA          1987
JXA-50A   JEOL               1971
EMX-SM   ARL                 1960
CAMEBAX MICROBEAM   1974

[John Donovan]

So how does this table look?

                       Year introduced
SEMQ-II   ARL                1978
SX-100   CAMECA          1987
JXA-50A   JEOL               1971
EMX-SM   ARL                 1960
CAMEBAX MICROBEAM   1974

You are leaving out a lot of older EPMA models, e.g., SX-50, SX-51, JEOL 733, JEOL 8900.

[rickard]

Yes, but these were the ones used in the studies I'm reviewing.
For history buffs I might add that my first probe was the Cambridge Microscan at Imperial College which I used in 1964. It was a green machine which worked if you kicked the lower left module with your toe about 20 cm from the floor. We then got the Cambridge Stereoscan but lowly students were not allowed to use it. I worked with an operator and he didn't seem to need to kick it (often) so it was a step up. D.