ELECTROSTATICS
NEWSLETTER
July/August 2000 No.151
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Summary of ESA 200 Annual Meeting
Dear ESA Members:
It’s become a tradition for the ESA President to write a summary of the
annual June meeting as part of the President’s Message for the July/August
Newsletter. I’d like to begin my
message by sharing an incident that I experienced at my very first ESA meeting
in 1980. I do not think the individual
involved will mind if I divulge his identity.
As a new recruit to Boston University, fresh out of graduate school, I
received a call from someone (name forgotten) saying that he’d heard about me
from my thesis advisor, and would I be interested in speaking at a meeting of
the ESA. I had never heard of the ESA
before, but I was flattered at receiving my first “professional invitation” and
gladly accepted. What I saw at the
conference left me pleased and wanting to return for more. In contrast to the
“shoot’em down, we-know-better-than-they-do” attitude through which I’d learned
to navigate during my college career, I found a group of individuals discussing
the cutting edge of electrostatics in a cooperative, gracious, and extremely
collegial atmosphere. A talk by a then
20-years younger Costa Chitouras (who actually looked about the same at the
2000 conference as he did in 1980) gave a talk that left me with an indelible
memory. His talk went something like
this:
“I was fooling around with my flock gun in the lab, and I noticed an
interesting phenomenon. I can’t explain
it, but perhaps some of you folks in the room will be able to explain it to
me.” A detailed audience discussion
ensued in which various people, some of them the giants in the field of
electrostatics, offered suggestions as to what might be happening to Costa’s
flocking material.
Right then and there, I thought to myself, “If someone can get up at
the ESA, feel comfortable giving such a presentation, and get helpful and
informative answers, then this is the society for me!” I’ve been an active member of the ESA ever
since.
I relate this story because it exemplifies the tradition carried forth
at our recent ESA-2000 conference. A
spirit of cooperation, helpful suggestions, and graciousness prevailed, much as
it did when I heard Costa’s talk in 1980.
It’s reassuring to see that these fine attributes of the ESA have
persisted for all these years.
Those who attended this year’s conference at Brock University, Ontario
enjoyed an excellent series of talks reflecting a dynamic mix of cutting-edge
technology, tutorials for newcomers, and even some esoterica. The international community was well
represented, and many of our regular domestic members were also in attendance.
Conspicuously present were talks in the electrostatics of biotechnology, food
science, and cellular mechanics given by invited guests and new members Joanne
Peart of Virginia Commonwealth University, John Gagliardi from Rutgers
University, and Sheryl Barringer from Ohio State University.
Joe Crowley began the meeting with a fine overview of the state of
electrostatics research and technology in the United States. Bob Gundlach, our featured banquet speaker,
shared with us his many insights into the relationship between companies, basic
research, and technological development.
The long list of other speakers at the conference, too numerous to
mention by name here, gave talks on charge neutralization, charge dissipation,
electrostatics instrumentation, electrostatics theory, atmospheric electricity,
electrostatic spraying, corona, particles and droplets, water boules,
electrets, industrial processes, and electro-hydrodynamics. Chuck Noll deserves special commendation for
packing the most information into a three-talk sequence. If you missed this year’s conference and
have not yet gotten a copy of the Proceedings, I would encourage you to do
so. Copies are available at a most
reasonable cost from “The Electrostatic Source” at HYPERLINK
"http://www.electrostatic.com" www.electrostatic.com. Abstracts from all talks may also be found
on our Web site at HYPERLINK
"http://www.electrostatics" www.electrostatics.org
I would like to extend my thanks to the Technical Session Chair, Ed Law
of the University of Georgia, and to the Local Arrangements Chair, Bill Vosteen
of Monroe Electronics. Ed deserves a special ovation for putting together one
of the finer sets of technical sessions that we’ve seen at ESA meetings. His supreme professionalism and grand
attention to detail will be a tough act to follow for next year’s chair. Bill did a
fine job of managing local arrangements, accommodations, and tours. He demonstrated a profound ability to think
on his feet, and he was in so many places at once that one wonders whether he
actually got to attend any of the technical talks. I’d also like to acknowledge the generosity of Monroe Electronics
for subsidizing travel expenses for one of our foreign attendees.
Special thanks are again due to Joe and Barb Crowley. The Crowley’s have once again donated their
time and the resources of Laplacian Press to make sure that the meeting was
accompanied by a detailed written Proceedings.
I’m also grateful to Humphrey Wong and his Awards Committee for
fielding nominations for this year’s awards and recommending Dick Bergen and
Bob Vosteen (see article elsewhere in this newsletter) for the Distinguished
Service and Lifetime Achievement awards, respectively.
I look forward to seeing everyone at next year’s
conference. These annual events lie at
the core of the ESA and its activities.
For the Friendly Society,
Mark Horenstein
ESA President
AWARDS
Two awards were presented at this year's banquet. As usual, Humphrey
Wong did a fine job of organizing the award nomination and review process as
well as designing the awards with their accompanying inscriptions. Humphrey was
aided in the committee review process by Peter Castle, Kelly Robinson and Mark
Zaretsky. Unfortunately, Humphrey was
not able to make the awards presentations at the banquet as he was awaiting the birth of his first child
(imminent as this is being written). In what appears to be a developing trend,
Mark Zaretsky substituted for Humphrey in making the presentations.
The first presentation was the DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD, given In
recognition of long-standing commitment, dedication, and service to the ESA,
and in acknowledgment of contributions characterized by enthusiasm and good
humor. This award was given to RICHARD F. BERGEN.
Some additional background on Dick: member of the ESA for over 20
years, served on the Executive Council June 1991 to June 1994, and was on the
Awards Committee in 1995. Delivered papers such as "Snap, Crackle and Pop,
Researching Charging Units," (MIT 1991) and "Scanning Ion Beam
Printer" (Stanford 1994). Out of the limelight and behind the scenes, he
(and Missy) have kept hospitality rooms replete with refreshments, organized
spousal programs, spoken with, supported and encouraged new members, and helped
imbue ESA meetings with a sense of community. Through his enthusiasm,
camaraderie and good humor, he has epitomized the "Friendly" in our "Friendly
Society". Thank you Dick.
The second presentation was the LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD, given in
recognition of outstanding and lifelong contributions to the field of
Electrostatics through the development and improvement of Electrostatic
Voltmeters, Fieldmeters and other instrumentation. This award was given
posthumously to ROBERT E. VOSTEEN and accepting the award was Bill Vosteen (our
conference organizer and chairman) and his twin brother Bob.
Some additional background on Bob Vosteen Sr.: born in Buffalo, 1921,
graduated from Medina High School, before attending Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute in Troy, N.Y. Served as a naval officer during World War II, where he
learned about boats and developed a passion for them which persisted throughout
his adult life, eventually helping to create the Oak Orchard Yacht Club where
he served in various leadership positions, including Commodore. Developed his
first non-contacting electrostatic voltmeter for the Haloid Company (later
known as Xerox) in 1955. Helped create
measuring instrumentation for the selenium photoconductor drum used in the
world's first Xerographic copier.
Founded Monroe Electronics, Inc, and wrote at least 23 patents, most of
which are at the core of electrostatic measurements, including a feedback stabilized
noncontact voltmeter, the tuning fork electrostatic field modulator, and
numerous improved high voltage amplifiers.
Was an active member of the ESA, serving on the Executive Council,
delivering papers, and acting frequently as a session chairman, until his death
in 1983.
Honorarily
yours,
Mark
Zaretsky
Above: The Vosteen brothers receiving the Lifetime
Achievement Award
on behalf of their father, Bob Vosteen
Left:
Bob Gundlach delivering the banquet address
at ESA 2000, Brock University
ESA 2001 CONFERENCE - SAVE THE DATE!
The next Annual Conference of the Electrostatics Society of America
will take place on June 28 – 30, 2001 at the Kellogg Hotel and
Conference Center at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan. This
site is about 45 minutes from the Detroit International Airport, 8 miles from a
local regional airport, and about one hour from Ann Arbor. We expect to have the usual round of formal
and informal talks as well as the camaraderie that has become the signature of
“The Friendly Society”.
Note the change in this year’s schedule: We will arrive on Wednesday
evening and hold sessions on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning. Hopefully this small change in scheduling
will not present problems for any individual.
Information about the beautiful and spacious Kellogg Center can be
found at HYPERLINK "http://www.hfs.msu.edu/kellogg"
http://www.hfs.msu.edu/kellogg. We are
in the process of negotiating a special room rate for all attendees. Both single rooms and family-type suites
will be available.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: The Future Relationship
Between the ESA and the IAS-EPC
To all ESA Members,
Recently I had a conversation with Jamal Sayed-Jagoobi, my counterpart
who heads the Electrostatic Processes Committee of the Industry Applications
Society, part of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE). Many of our ESA members (as do
I) also belong to this group which holds its annual conference as part of the
much larger IAS meeting in October. In
my view, attendance at IAS-EPC meetings has fallen off over the past
decade. Similarly, although ESA
attendance has been relatively steady during this time period, we might have
routinely expected a 50% higher turnout rate in the 1980’s. As I’ve noted in several
previous President’s messages, this
fall off in attendance may have more to do with the aging of people than the
aging of electrostatics. Many of the
younger researchers who use electrostatics in their work are unaware of the
existence and rich history of the ESA and are probably equally unaware of the
EPC. Combining the resources of both these groups would help both maintain
their joint voice as the central gathering point for all who share in interest
in electrostatics.
I would like to share with you the text of my recent e-mail to Dr.
Sayed-Jagoobi and ask for reactions from the general membership. Please share
your opinions via e-mail (HYPERLINK "mailto:mnh@bu.edu" mnh@bu.edu)
or a brief note (my postal address is on the back of this newsletter.) We may also choose to circulate a summary of
opinions in the next newsletter. For
those of you who will be attending the IAS meeting in Rome in October 2000,
feel free to share your thoughts with other EPC members. A similar note on this topic has been
distributed to the EPC mailing list.
Mark Horenstein
ESA President
Message Text
Dear Jamal,
To follow up on our conversation from last spring, I
just returned from the annual ESA conference where idea of the ESA and IAS-EPC
combining forces was brought up at the business meeting. In general, most all of those intending were
in favor of the idea, including those present who are regulars at both
conferences. I'd like to pursue this
idea on more detail to see if there is interest from the IAS side. There are several benefits from combining
our resources - increased attendance at meetings to name one. We tend to run bout 50-80 attendees, and
IAS/EPC meetings seem to draw about 0-35, with only about 20% overlap. It would be nice to have a single conference
that yields upwards of 100 attendees.
Also, if we were able to change the venue of the IAS/EPC meeting (see
below) to someplace less expensive, we might be able to attract more IEEE
members interested in electrostatics.
One issue that we agreed was important was that neither group should
lose its organizational identity, at least in the beginning, so as to make the
joining of forces the most palatable to all. One possible model comes to mind:
I believe that some arms of the IAS (Cement and Pulp, for example) hold their
conferences at times separate from the main IAS meeting in October. If EPC were to do the same, and hold its
conference either back-to-back or in conjunction with ESA at the same site,
then IAS members who wished to funnel their papers to the Transactions could do
so, and ESA members who wish to funnel theirs to the Journal of Electrostatics
could do the same. It might even be
possible to publish the papers in a common proceedings. There was uniform sentiment at ESA for
keeping our meeting in the third week of June slot for a number of reason: a. Many facilities at universities become
available at that time and are much less expensive; b. A lot of attendees bring
their spouses and families and make a post--year vacation out of it, and
therefore can better justify the trip; c. The weather is warm and we can keep a
casual atmosphere; d. Corporate budgets are far from fiscal year closings when
budgets are tight and a lot of travel funds are rescinded, making travel
difficult; e. We don't conflict in proximity to a lot of other meetings,
including the Japan conference, ESD annual meeting, etc. Let me know what you think, and feel free to
share my email with other IAS EPC members.
Best regards,
Mark Horenstein
GECKOS
As a follow up to our impromptu talk at the Niagara Falls Conference by
Tim Erin on the possible electrostatics forces at work in the foot pads of the
gecko lizard, Anne S. Benninghoff took note of the following article from
NATURE, Vol 405, June 8, 2000. The abstract is reproduced below.
Adhesive Force of a Single Gecko Foot-Hair
Kellar
Autumn, Yiching A. Liang, S. Tonia Hsieh, Wolfgang Zesch, Wal Pang Chan, Thomas W. Kenny, Ronald
Fearing & Robert J. Full
“Geckos are exceptional in their ability to climb rapidly up smooth
vertical surfaces. Microscopy has shown
that a gecko’s foot has nearly five hundred thousand keratinous hairs or
seta. Each 30 - 130 lm long seta is
only one-tenth the diameter of a human hair and contains hundreds of projections
terminating in 0.2 - 0,5 lm spatula-shaped structures. After nearly a century of anatomical
description, here we report the first direct measurements of single setal force
by using a two-dimensional micro-electromechanical systems force sensor and a
wire as a force gauge. Measurements
revealed that a seta is ten times more effective at adhesion than predicted
from maximal estimates on whole animals.
Adhesive force values support the hypothesis that individual seta
operate by van der Waals forces. The gecko’s
peculiar behavior of toe uncurling and peeling led us to discover two aspects
of setal function which increase their effectiveness. A unique macroscopic orientation and preloading of the seta
increased attachment force 600-fold above that of frictional measurements of
the material. Suitably orientated setae
reduced the forces necessary to peel the toe by simply detaching above a
critical angle with the substratum.”
Included in the body of the paper, the following information about the
magnitude of the forces involved is reported:
“The foot of a Tokay gecko has about 5,000 setae/mm2 and can
produce 10N of adhesive force with approximately 100 mm2 of pad
area. Therefor, each seta should
produce an average force of 20lN and an average stress of 0.1 N/mm2
(~1 atm).”
ESA 2000
ATTENDEES
IDENTIFICATION OF ATTENDEES IN PHOTOGRAPH
(At least our best effort at it)