Thermal Electron Reactions at the University of Houston

If enough histories, written while the ideas are still fresh in the minds of the people concerned, are available for a variety of discoveries of inventions, it may eventually be possible to lay down some of the principles required to facilitate the obtaining of fruitful results in scientific research in general. Clearly also the background of knowledge at the time the advance was made will be best understood if the history is as recent as possible. 

These words were the catalyst for a look into the history of the first seventy-five years of chromatography [1]. Their significance is emphasized when we recall that the ECD was invented by James E. Lovelock at the behest of Martin, once the Welch Professor at the University of Houston. Martin passed away in 2002 with little note of his contribution to chromatography. In their history of chromatography, L. S. Ettre and A. Zlatkis first gave a biographical sketch of Martin and then a narrative of his accomplishments. 

In this chapter we present a personal retrospective on the decades of work at the W. E. Wentworth Laboratories and summarize the advances made there in the past fifteen years, which constitute the major focus of this book. We give our impression of the applications of the scientific method that Wentworth passed on to his students and colleagues. 

In the scientific method problems are neatly stated, postulates made, data collected, and solutions obtained. Seldom is this path unidirectional. More often, it is a matter of luck and the right combination of individuals at the right time that leads to a solution. Science could not progress without the critical eyes of others. It is often the skeptic questioning the results of other investigators who spurs and 

The Electron Capture Detector and the Study of Reactions with Thermal Electrons 

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