In 1910, British physicist observed a release of positive ions and neutral atoms from a solid surface induced by ion bombardment. Improved technology in the 1940s enabled the first prototype experiments on SIMS by Herzog and Viehböck in 1949, at the, Austria. In the mid-1950s, Honig constructed a SIMS instrument at in. Then in the early 1960s, two SIMS instruments were developed independently. One was an American proje.