The submillimetre revolution

Although this is a personal reflection of the rise of submillimetre and far-infrared astronomy I will attempt to cover all the major events and players. The review will be restricted to continuum techniques and will principally cover ground-based telescopes. Balloon-based platforms will also be discussed but airborne platforms will be covered by George Rieke. It is always important to remember that a telescope is only as good as the instrumentation it supports, and because there have been few true submillimetre telescopes constructed to date, this review will devote significant time to the instrumentation and technical developments that have been the underpinning of the submillimetre revolution.