Here, you will uncover historical information about the society. Enjoy these nuggets curated by John Challis, our Archives Officer.
The first commercial force plate was available from Kistler in 1969. That force plate used piezoelectric crystals, the first commercial strain-gauge force plate was available from AMTI in 1976. Early pioneers had made their own force plates (e.g., Elftman, H. (1938). The measurement of the external force in walking. Science, 88(2276), 152-153).
The ISB emerged from a series of conferences (1967 - Zurich, 1969 - Eindhoven, 1971 - Rome, 1973 – Penn State). The proceedings from those conferences include papers describing force plate design and manufacture, and the measurements which can be made from those plates. One of the authors of such papers was (Andrew) Howard Payne (1931-1992), pictured above. His work at these conferences included,
- Payne, A. (1969). The use of force platforms for the study of physical activity. In J. Wartenweiler, E. Jokl, & M. Hebbelinck (Eds.), Biomechanics: Technique of Drawings of Movement and Movement Analysis (Vol. 2, pp. 83-86). Baltimore, Maryland: Karger Publishers. (presented at conference in 1967)
- Payne, A., & Blader, F. (1971). The mechanics of the sprint start. In J. Vredenbreght & J. Wartenweiler (Eds.), Biomechanics II (Vol. 2, pp. 225-231). New York, NY: Karger Publishers. (presented at conference in 1969)
- Payne, A. H. (1974). A force platform system for biomechanics research in sport. In R. C. Nelson & C. A. Morehouse (Eds.), Biomechanics IV (pp. 502-509). Baltimore: University Park Press. (presented at conference in 1973)
Howard was not just a biomechanist, with a degree in physics, he also competed at three consecutive Olympic Games as a hammer thrower (1964 - Tokyo, 1968 – Mexico, and 1972 – Montreal). He had considerable success at British Empire and Commonwealth Games winning gold at the 1962 games in Perth, the 1966 games in Kingston, the 1970 games in Edinburgh, and finally a silver at the 1974 games in Christchurch at the age of 43. Howard was active as a hammer thrower at the same time as being active in research and at conferences.
Howard was a long-term faculty member at the University of Birmingham. He is a charter member of the ISB. He contributed to the ISB by being the newsletter editor of the Force Platform Group (1976-1978), and group chairperson (1978-1980), a group formed in 1973. He also remained active at ISB Congresses, for example at the 1987 Congress in Amsterdam he presented,
- Payne, A. (1988). The hinged moment, lean angle and braking forces at the feet in human movement. In G. De Groot, A. P. Hollander, P. A. Huijing, & G. J. Van Ingen Schenau (Eds.), Biomechanics XI-B (pp. 949-955). Amsterdam: Free University Press.
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