RAMAN APPLICATIONS IN FOAMS - Raman Spectroscopy for Soft Matter Applications - page 178

est in problems that involve minimization of a surface area contained
by a fi xed boundary [14]. The two aspects were tackled separately and
were uncorrelated. It was not until the nineteenth century that the two
aspects of foam investigation started to unite, based upon the experi-
mental results of the Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau, who showed that
analogue solutions to the minimization problem could be obtained
experimentally by dipping wire frames in soap solutions [15]. These
experimental techniques and results inspired mathematicians to inves-
tigate new analytic solutions for the minimum area problem and its
associated geometric properties. Around the turn of the twentieth
century, Charles Boys was known as a great popularizer of soap foam.
He gave numerous lecture demonstrations which intrigued everyone
in the audience and published a fascinating topic entitled Soap Bubbles
and the Forces Which Mould Them , which has been popular among
young people since its publication in 1890.
Only in the 1930s of the twentieth century important steps have been
taken in the direction of the minimization problem by Douglas [16] and
his contemporaries [17]. More recently, mathematical advances in
understanding foam structure have been achieved utilizing computer
simulations as we will discuss later in this chapter [18]. Since then, a
large and very profi table chemical industry has grown up based upon
foams and their surface properties. Consequently, large research pro-
grams in both industry and academia are still investigating the fascinat-
ing subject of foams (Figure 7.1).

Leonardo da Vinci
1452-1519

Joseph Plateau
1801-1883

Charles Boys
1855-1944

Figure 7.1 Da Vinci, Plateau, and Boys, three pioneers who started, established,
and popularized the fi eld of foam.