Evolution of ion-exchange: from Moses to the Manhattan Project to Modern Times

This article explores the history of ion-exchange from records of desalination in the Old Testament and the writings of Aristotle, to the identification of the phenomenon of ion-exchange by two English agricultural chemists, to the invention of suppressed conductivity by Small et al. [Anal. Chem. 54 (1975) 462]. It then focuses on the characteristics of the gradual and continuous evolution of ion chromatography with suppressed conductivity to its current state, with an emphasis on those discoveries that punctuated or revolutionized this evolution.