Mattson Instruments, Inc

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highly specific procedures and the availability of prepurified reagents make blank control much easier. Reliable results were obtained in spite of the problems. I recall a group of food samples in about 1970 from which AAS and colorimetric results for lead were compared. Large dis­ agreements were resolved in favor of t h e colorimetric v a l u e s b e c a u s e workers using AAS had failed to cor­ rect for background absorption. The situation today The success of AAS continues. My feeling is that more elemental analy­ ses currently are done by AAS than by any other method. Its only close competitor would be inductively cou­ pled plasma emission. Instruments of ever-increasing complexity are sell­ ing like hot cakes, and there appears to be no end in sight. The situation described by Slavin (4) is even more true today than it was in 1971, espe­ cially if one includes the computer system with which the instruments interact: "In fact the possession of spectroscopic instruments (not neces­ sarily their wise use) has become a status symbol. . . . A pecking order is developing among laboratory work­

ers on the basis of the size, number and elaborateness of optical appara­ tus. Affluence breeds strange fruits."

(16) Sandell, Ε. Β. Colorimetric Determina­ tion of Traces ofMetals, 2nd éd.; Wiley-Interscience: New York, 1950.

References (1) Walsh, A. Spectrochim. Acta 1955, 7, 108. (2) Alkemade, C.T.J.; Milatz, J.M.W. /. Opt. Soc. Am. 1955, 45, 583. (3) Twyman, F. The Spectrochemical Analy­ sis of Metals and Alloys; C. Griffin & Co. Ltd.: London, 1941; Chapter 1. (4) Slavin, M. Emission Spectrochemical Analysis; Wiley-Interscience: New York, 1971; Chapter 1. (5) Fassel, V. Α.; Golightly D. W. Anal. Chem. 1967, 39, 466. (6) Pickett, Ε. Ε.; Koirtyohann, S. R. Anal. Chem. 1969, 42(14), 28 A. (7) Chan, Y. K.; Wong, P. Y. Talanta 1968, 15, 867. (8) Fiorino, Ι. Α.; Kniseley, R. N.; Fassel, V. A. Spectrochim. Acta 1968, 23B, 413. (9) Fuwa, K.; Vallée, Β. L. Anal. Chem. 1963 35 942 (10) Koirtyohann, S. R.; Pickett, Ε. Ε. Anal. Chem. 1965, 37, 601. (11) Robinson, J. W. Anal. Chem. 1960, 32(8), 17 A. (12) Robinson, J. W. Anal. Chem. 1961,33, 1067. (13) Jarnutowski, R. J. Beckman Instru­ ments, Inc., personal communication, 1991. (14) Meggers, W. F. Anal. Chem. 1950, 22, 18. (15) Lundell, G.E.F. Ind. Eng. Chem. Anal. Ed. 1933, 5, 221.

S. R. Koirtyohann earned his M.S. degree and Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he has been a faculty member since 1966. He joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1958, working in emission spectroscopy with Cyrus Feldman and becoming active in AA research. He has published about 75 research papers and book chapters on AAS. His contributions include the definition of the nature ofbackground spectra inflames and the development ofcontinuum source background correction. He has aho contributed to the understanding ofatom formation inflames and furnaces and has worked throughout his career on the application ofAA methods to practical problems.

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