Measuring techniques for electrostatics

Faraday pails, induction probes, rotating vane fieldmeters, even scanning Kelvin microscopy and pulsed electroacoustic techniques are subsets of a more general class of measuring methods. The unifying feature is the principle of charge detection — the induction of charge on a sensing surface. Following a brief discussion of each technique, a glimpse is given of the likely thrust of future developments and the challenges that lie ahead.