Foam fractionation (FF), more often than not called protein skimming by hobbyists, originated, as far as I have been able to determine, in the early 1960's in West Germany.
The first references found are those of a renowned hobbyist, chemist and researcher by the name of Guido Huckstedt. He was quite popular in the USA for a while but, when others got involved in protein skimming, they convenienty forgot to mention their references and his name, as so often happens in this hobby unfortunately.
Hueckstedt and Schmidt designed a device that is found in many old books and is called a protein skimmer (Abschaumer in German) but does not mention either Schmidt nor Huekstedt. The authors of those books kind of decided to leave those names out, for reasons of their own.
I have seen many writers take credit for care recommendations, for filtration suggestions and supposedly new equipment, stating that they designed it, when in fact, that equipment, or the practices they advocated, where already suggested by others years earlier.
All one has to do to find evidence of this deceitful practice is go back in time and get older and older books and one finds the sources eventually. I have done so for skimmers, hence these statements.
I will not mention names but mention I have fallen victim myself to this. Many techniques I introduced or products I brought to the market are now in common use and recommended by many. The source for these recommendations are left out. Even today, articles are taken off our Web Site and reposted elsewhere using the authors name, rather than mine, even tough the copyrights where clearly cited and displayed.
Many of the new techniques I introduced, or introduced citing sources, where taken over by others, never mentioning where they had gotten the information from. This is a shame as credit should be given where it is due. Mind you, I am not upset or frustrated. This practice seems so prevalent in this hobby that it is not worth getting all worked up about it. Those who have been around for long enough know where new techniques, practices and products originated, even if they read claims to that effect by others.
In the case of FF's the credit certainly goes to Schmidt and Hueckstedt. I publicly acknowledge that fact here.
I also wish to re-establish, here, that Guido Hueckstedt can be considered the father of the proteim skimmer, and that all present designs are, really, just modifications of what he originally designed, tested and modified till he had a working model.
He opinioned that saltwater accumulated a number of pollutants, in a short span of time, and that no other form of filtration was able to remove these pollutants. To remove them he came up with the protein skimmer. We know today that he was of course right. Organic decay break down products, yellowing matter, Gilvin, and many others are not removed by traditional filtration methods. Even activated carbon is not able to perform as efficiently as a good protein skimmer.
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