Development of mass spectrometers from Thomson and Aston to present

• Thomson's parabola spectrograph.
• Aston's high resolution spectrographs.
• Nier's spectrometers.
• Mattauch-Herzog and Ewald double-focusing high resolution mass spectrographs.
• ISOL, recoil, and fragment separators for rare-isotopes.
• Precision mass measurements in a storage ring.

Mass spectrometry contributed to the understanding of the structure of elementary matter including the isotopic nature of the chemical elements, isotopic abundances, nuclear binding, and the investigation of nuclides far-off stability. In this paper the continuous development of mass spectrometers from W. Wien's first mass analysis to J.J. Thomson's discovery of isotopes, F.W. Aston's mass spectrometers, and the Mattauch–Herzog double focusing spectrometer to the present rare isotope facilities will be discussed. Separators with magnetic sector fields e.g. from A.O. Nier and the Oak Ridge separator batteries for large-scale isotope production are included. The first applications to chemistry and geochemistry will be mentioned briefly. The key role of the development of ion optics from the first geometrical calculations towards modern matrix method is addressed. Finally recent developments of mass spectrometers for basic nuclear research including ISOL and in-flight separators for rare-isotope facilities and mass spectrometry with cooled and stored ions will be presented.

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