ROSSS RULE - ROSS,SYDNEY AND THE PHASE-DIAGRAM

One of Professor Ross's recent publications has the title, Capillarity and the Phase Diagram (J. Colloid Interface Sci., 145 (1991) 301). It describes applications of a fundamental principle first discovered by Ross and coworkers that capillary phenomena occur near certain define d locations within phase diagrams, namely, the phase boundaries. As th is principle is a generalization of the Lundelius rule (Kolloid Z., 26 (1920) 145), may we be so bold as to call it Ross's rule? Interesting ly, we can now see in the almost sixty years of Professor Ross's publi shed work intimations of this rule in his work on the stabilization of foams and actions of antifoams, the behavior of adsorbed gases, and w etting phenomena near critical points. These earlier contributions are summarized to show the broad usefulness of this rule in colloid scien ce and to justify its name.