On PPS (Probability Proportional to Size) sampling

I hate to throw cold water on this PPS sampling invention theory. The originator of PPS sampling was not Ken Stringer, also one of my heroes.

PPS was originally suggested by M.H. Hansen and W. N. Hurwitz in their work "On the Theory of Sampling from Finite Populations" in the Annals of Mathematical Statistics,  way back in 1943. They were also among the first to address the issue of non-response in sample surveys. They published the classic tome, two volume "Sample Survey Methods and Theory"  in the early 1950s. Hansen is considered the most influential statistician of the twentieth century in the area of sampling. Like in most sciences, names are generally forgotten. Hansen is best remembered by the Hansen-Hurwitz estimator for PPS sampling without replacement. By the time I was an undergraduate in the early sixties in Bombay, PPS sampling was a part of the lore of statistics (my undergraduate  text for sampling was the classic "Sampling theory of surveys with applications" by P.V. Sukhatme).

Hansen too was NOT a professor (he also never did his doctorate, a graduate of U of Wyoming). He worked for the US Census. He was the President of the prestigious Institute of Mathematical Statistics and also the President of the American Statistical Association. He also was the person responsible of introduction of computers in the US Census. For a biographical sketch at the National Academies Press seehttp://www.nap.edu/readingroom.php?book=biomems&page=mhansen.html 

I am pretty sure Stringer would have been aware of the Hansen-Hurwitz work.