Hondaas thermobalance

Kotaro Honda (2/23/1870a2/12/1954) graduated from the Department of Physics, Tokyo Imperial University in 1897. Between 1907 and 1911, he stayed in Europe, and spent the majority of his time at GAPGttingen University to study physical metallurgy under Professor Gustav Tammann. In 1911, he returned to Japan and was nominated professor of physics at Tohoku Imperial University, Sendai. An university-affiliated institute for research on iron and steel was established on a permanent basis in 1919, and the institute developed to the Research Institute for Iron, Steel, and Other Metals (RIISOM, KINKEN in Japanese) in 1922. Professor Honda served as the Director of the Institute until 1933. The RIISOM was reorganized as a national collaborative research institute named Institute for Materials Research in 2001. Professor Honda and his colleagues achieved distinguished research works of physical metallurgy, in which thermoanalytical techniques such as differential thermal analysis (DTA), thermodilatometry and thermomagnetometry were utilized effectively. Professor Honda also played an important role in the field of thermogravimetry (TG) by means of the first development of the thermobalance. In the present paper, Hondaas original thermobalance, various modifications carried out by his school, the commercialized Hondaas thermobalance and other related matters are briefly summarized.