HISTORY OF MAGNETIC PARTICLE INSPECTION

Magnetism is the ability of matter to attract other to itself. The ancient Greeks were the first to discover this phenomenon in a mineral they named magnetite. Later on Bergmann, Becharee, and Faraday discovered that all matter including liquids and gasses were affected by magnetism, but only a few responded to a noticeable extent.
The earliest known use of magnetism to inspect took place as early as 1868. Cannon barrels were checked for defects by magnetizing the barrel then sliding a magnetic compass along the barrels length. These early inspectors were able to locate flaws in the barrels by monitoring the needle of the compass. This was a form of nondestructive testing but the term was not commonly used until some time after world war 1.
In the early 1920s, William Hoke realized that magnetic particle ( colored metal shavings) could be used with magnetism as a means of locating defects. Hoke discovered that a surface or subsurface flaw in a magnetized material caused the magnetic field to distort and extend beyond the part. This discovery was brought to his attention in the machine shop. He noticed that metallic grindings from hard steel parts (held by a magnetic chuk while being ground)  formed patterns on the face of the parts which corresponded to the cracks in the surface. Applying a fine ferromagnetic powder to the parts caused a build up of powder over flaws and formed a visible indication. The image shows a 1928 Electyro-magnetic steel Testing Device (MPI) made by the Equipment and Engineering company Ltd.(ECO) of standard, England.