Heike Kamerlingh Onnes - Biography, Facts and Pictures Blog Heike Kamerlingh Onnes A Dutch physicist, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was the pioneer of refrigeration techniques and the one who studied how materials behave when they are cooled to almost absolute zero temperature. He was also the first person to liquefy helium, and because of his experiments concerning cryogenics as well as extremely low temperature, he was able to discover superconductivity. He also noted how the rate of electrical resistance can vanish at much lower temperatures for certain materials. Early Life and Educational Background Heike was born on the 21st of September in 1853 and was a native of Groningen in the Netherlands. Harm Kamerlingh Onnes, his father, owned brickworks near his birth town. Anna Gerdina Coers, his mother, was an architect’s daughter from Arnhem. His exposure to such fields may have piqued his interest when it came to making his very own discoveries later on in his life. Advertisements He was educated at the local Hoogere Burgerschool which was a native secondary school that did not have classical languages.

After spending the required time for secondary school, he was able to get supplementary education on Latin and Greek from Leyden J.M. van Bemmelen who later became his Chemistry professor. After his supplementary education on classical languages, he went to the University of Groningen where he worked on obtaining the “candidaats” degree. A year after studying at the University of Groningen, he proceeded to Heidelberg where he furthered his education from 1871 up to 1873. After his time there, he made his way back to Groningen and this was where he was able to pass his “doctoraal” exams in 1879. A year later, he was able to obtain his doctoral degree and he had his thesis called the New Proofs of the Rotation of the Earth which was originally entitled Nieuwebewijzenvoor de aswenteling der aarde. In this doctoral work, he proved through theoretical and experimental means how the Foucault’s pendulum experiment must be seen as a kind of special, large group phenomena which, when simplified, can prove how the earth moved in a rotational manner.

In 1881, Heike published Algemeenetheorie der vloeistoffen or the general theory of liquids which discussed the kinetic theory of matter in liquid state. Here, he approached his work using the Van der Waal law while also having a mechanistic back up to it. His work on the general theory of liquids sparked his lifelong dedication to investigate more on how matter behaves when subjected to very low temperatures. He had his inaugural address known as the importance of quantitative research in physics where he said his now famous motto: “Knowledge through measurement” or “Door metentotweten.” Little did he realize this belief had materialized because of his appreciation of how important measurements were concerning his lifelong engagement in scientific experiments. Scientific Career and Endeavors It was in 1871 when his outstanding skills in solving scientific problems were made obvious at the young age of 18. That year he received a gold medal for winning a competition which was held by the University of Utrecht’s Natural Sciences Faculty. The following year he received a silver medal from the University of Groningen. While he was still working on his doctoral degree, he was an assistant at the Polytechnicum which was in Delft.

He also became a lecturer in the area for a year from 1881. Because of this, he was appointed as the Professor of Experimental Physics and Meteorology after P.L. Rijke held the same post. After he got appointed as the chair of Physics, he made changes to the Physical Laboratory which is now named after him and is called the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory. He made the necessary changes so that the place would be fitted to be the most suitable place for his own program. More particularly, the changes he made were aimed towards having his own cryogenic laboratory that would help him verify the idea Van der Waal had about corresponding states of matter in relation to the temperature they are being subjected to. It took a while before his efforts to reach very low temperatures paid off. It was in 1908 when he was able to liquefy helium. He was able to bring its temperature down to only 0,9°K which was, back then, the nearest temperature to absolute zero. It was because of this achievement that he was able to justify the saying which claims that the coldest area on the planet was Leyden. It was because of this successful experimentation about low temperatures that he became a Nobel Laureate for Physics.

Later on and in the same laboratory, W.J. de Haas and W.H. Keesom had experiments where they also aimed to reach the absolute zero mark. Legacy Years later, his laboratory became the place where more important breakthroughs were made and this earned him worldwide recognition. Such studies included research about thermodynamics, radioactivity laws, as well as different observations on electrical, magnetic, and optical phenomena. The study of fluorescence and phosphorescence, along with the polarization plane’s magnetic rotation and how crystals absorbed spectra in the magnetic field, were also brought to light in his laboratory. His more momentous discovery was superconductivity of certain pure metals like mercury. This discovery was made in 1911. In this experiment, other metals he used included tin and lead which were both subjected to extremely low temperatures. The great results of experiments done by Heike were published in the Communications of the Physical Laboratory at Leyden. They were also published in the Proceedings of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Amsterdam. Because of the significance of his work and the breakthroughs he was able to make, a lot of foreign men of science went to Leyden to have a chance at working in his laboratory.

Outside the laboratory, he was known as a family man who also extended a helping hand to those who needed it. He was married to Maria Adriana Wilhelmina Elisabeth Bijleveld. With his wife, he had one son named Albert who later on became a civil servant at The Hague. Advertisements Heike Kamerlingh Onnes - Biographical Heike Kamerlingh Onnes The Nobel Prize in Physics 1913 Heike Kamerlingh Onnes Share this: Heike Kamerlingh Onnes - Biographical Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was born on September 21, 1853, at Groningen, The Netherlands. His father, Harm Kamerlingh Onnes, was the owner of a brickworks near Groningen; his mother was Anna Gerdina Coers of Arnhem, the daughter of an architect. After spending the allotted time at the "Hoogere Burgerschool" in his native town (secondary school without classical languages), the director of which was the later Professor of Chemistry at Leyden J.M. van Bemmelen, he received supplementary teaching in Greek and Latin.

In 1870 he entered the University of Groningen, obtained his "candidaats" degree (approx. B.Sc.) the following year, and then went to Heidelberg as a student of Bunsen and Kirchhoff from October 1871 until April 1873. Thereafter he returned to Groningen, where he passed his "doctoraal" examination (approx. M.Sc.) in 1878 and obtained the doctor's degree in 1879 with a remarkable thesis Nieuwe bewijzen voor de aswenteling der aarde (New proofs of the rotation of the earth). Meanwhile in 1878 he had become assistant at the Polytechnicum at Delft, working under Bosscha, in whose place he also lectured in 1881 and 1882, the year in which he was appointed Professor of Experimental Physics and Meteorology at Leyden University, in succession to P.L. Rijke.

Kamerlingh Onnes' talents for solving scientific problems was already apparent in 1871, when at the age of 18 he was awarded a Gold Medal for a competition sponsored by the Natural Sciences Faculty of the University of Utrecht, followed the next year by a Silver Medal for a similar event at the University of Groningen. When working with Kirchhoff he also won the "Seminarpreis", entitling him to occupy one of the two existing assistantships under Kirchhoff. In his doctor's thesis theoretical as well as experimental proof was given that Foucault's well-known pendulum experiment should be considered as a special case of a large group of phenomena which in a much simpler fashion can be used to prove the rotational movement of the earth. In 1881 he published a paper Algemeene theorie der vloeistoffen (General theory of liquids), which dealt with the kinetic theory of the liquid state, approaching Van der Waals' law of corresponding states from a mechanistic point of view. This work can be considered as the beginning of his life-long investigations into the properties of matter at low temperatures.

In his inaugural address De beteekenis van het quantitatief onderzoek in de natnurkunde (The importance of quantitative research in physics) he arrived at his well-known motto "Door meten tot weten" (Knowledge through measurement), an appreciation of the value of measurements which concerned him throughout his scientific career. After his appointment to the Physics Chair at Leyden, Kamerlingh Onnes reorganized the Physical Laboratory (now known as the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory) in a way to suit his own programme. His researches were mainly based on the theories of his two great compatriots J.D. van der Waals and H.A. Lorentz . In particular he had in mind the establishment of a cryogenic laboratory which would enable him to verify Van der Waals' law of corresponding states over a large range of temperatures. His efforts to reach extremely low temperatures culminated in the liquefaction of helium in 1908. Bringing the temperature of the helium down to 0,9°K, he reached the nearest approach to absolute zero then achieved, thus justifying the saying that the coldest spot on earth was situated at Leyden.

It was on account of these low-temperature studies that he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Later, his pupils W.H. Keesom and W.J. de Haas ( Lorentz' son-in-law) conducted experiments in the same laboratory which led them still closer to absolute zero. Other investigations in his laboratory which gradually gained in importance and international fame, included thermodynamics, the radioactivity law, and observations on optical, magnetic and electrical phenomena, such as the study of fluorescence and phosphorescence, the magnetic rotation of the polarization plane, absorption spectra of crystals in the magnetic field; also the Hall effect, dielectric constants, and especially the resistance of metals. A momentous discovery (1911) was that of the superconductivity of pure metals such as mercury, tin and lead at very low temperatures, and following from this the observation of persisting currents. The results of Kamerlingh Onnes' investigations were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Amsterdam and also in the Communications from the Physical Laboratory at Leyden. Many foreign scientists came to Leyden to work in his laboratory for shorter or longer periods.

The laboratory gained additional fame throughout the world through the training school for instrument-makers and glass-blowers housed in it, founded by Kamerlingh Onnes in 1901. At the early age of 30, Kamerlingh Onnes was appointed a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Amsterdam. He was one of the founders of the Association (now Institut) International du Froid. He was a Commander in the Order of the Netherlands Lion, the Order of Orange-Nassau of the Netherlands, the Order of St. Olaf of Norway, and the Order of Polonia Restituta of Poland. He held an honorary doctorate of the University of Berlin, and was awarded the Matteucci Medal, the Rumford Medal, the Baumgarten Preis and the Franklin Medal.

He was Member of the Society of Friends of Science in Moscow, and of the Academies of Sciences in Copenhagen, Uppsala, Turin, Vienna, Göttingen and Halle; Foreign Associate of the Académie des Sciences of Paris; Foreign Member of the Accademia dei Lincei of Rome and the Royal Society of London; and Honorary Member of the Physical Society of Stockholm, the Société Helvétique des Sciences Naturelles, the Royal Institution of London, the Sociedad Española da Física y Qumica of Madrid, and the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. Outside his scientific work, Kamerlingh Onnes' favourite recreations were his family life and helpfulness to those who needed it. Although his work was his hobby, he was far from being a pompous scholar. A man of great personal charm and philanthropic humanity, he was very active during and after the First World War in smoothing out political differences between scientists and in succouring starving children in countries suffering from food shortage. In 1887 he married Maria Adriana Wilhelmina Elisabeth Bijleveld, who was a great help to him in these activities and who created a home widely known for its hospitality.

They had one son, Albert, who became a high-ranking civil servant at The Hague. Kamerlingh Onnes' health had always been somewhat delicate, and, after a short illness, he died at Leyden on February 21, 1926. From Nobel Lectures , Physics 1901-1921, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1967 This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel . It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures . To cite this document, always state the source as shown above. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (b. Groningen, Netherlands, 21 September 1853; d. Leiden, Netherlands, 21 February 1926) physics. Kamerlingh Onnes was the son of a well-known manufacturer in Groningen. After attending secondary school, he was admitted in 1870 to the University of Groningen, where he studied physics and mathematics.

In November 1871 he passed the intermediate examination for the bachelor’s degree, whereupon he spent some time at Heidelberg. There he studied for three semesters with Bunsen and Kirshhoff, a tenure that was made possible by the Seminarpreis. Earlier he had won two other competition prizes, the gold medal of the University of Utrecht and the silver medal of the University of Groningen, both for research on the chemical bond. In April 1873 he returned to Groningen to complete his studies under R. A. Mees. In June 1876 he passed his doctoral examination, and on 10 July 1879 he defended his dissertation, entitled “Nieuwe bewijzen voor de aswenteling van de aarde” (“New Proofs for the Axial Rotation of the Earth”), a subject which, stimulated by Kirchhoff, he had started to study at Heidelberg. On the basis of this dissertation, in which he showed that he was also an excellent mathematician, he was awarded the doctorate magna cum laude.

In 1878 Kamerlingh Onnes was appointed assistant to Johannes Bosscha, who was then the director of the Polytechnic School (later the Technical University) at Delft. In 1880–1881 and 1881–1882 he lectured there for Snijders and Bosscha. During this time he was in close contact with van der Waals, who was then professor of physics in Amsterdam, and thus he became acquainted with problems related to the molecular theory of matter. An indication of this is found in his article “Théorie générale de l’état fluide” (1884). In 1882 P. L. Rijke, professor of physics at Leiden, retired and kamerlingh Onnes was appointed his successor at the age of twenty-nine. He held this professorship, which included the directorship of the physics laboratory, for forty-two years. The period in which Kamerlingh Onnes worked can be characterized as transitional for physics. The increasing importance of experimental physics is demonstrated by his appointment to the first chair of experimental physics in the Netherlands. Before then experimental and theoretical physics were not separated.

On the other hand, the mechanistic image of physics was gradually being abandoned under the influence of Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism; physicists were also gradually coming to believe that matter is not a continuum but has a corpuscular nature. When Kamerlingh Onnes came to Leiden most physicists still adhered to the idea of continuity, but Boltzmann and van der Waals in particular were promoting the corpuscular theory. In his inaugural address at Leiden (11 November 1882), “The Significance of Quantitative Research in Physics,” Kamerlingh Onnes stated: “In my opinion it is necessary that in the experimental study of physics the striving for quantitative research, which means for the tracing of measure relations in the phenomena, must be in the foreground. I should like to write ‘Door meten tot weten’ [‘Through measuring to knowing’] as a motto above each physics laboratory.” This motto was a declaration of principle to which he always remained loyal. In conducting his research and developing the necessary facilities Kamerlingh Onnes showed an enormous capacity for work, the more admirable because he was in very delicate health.

His strong will and the great devotion and care of his wife, Elisabeth, enabled him to achieve what he did. When Kamerlingh Onnes received his appointment at Leiden, he made it his purpose to give experimental support to van der Waals’s theory of the behavior of gases and especially to the “law of corresponding states.” This theory is based on the hypothesis that a gas consists of molecules circulating and exerting forces on each other. The law of corresponding states, which van der Waals had derived from his equation of state but which had a wider validity than for this form of the equation alone, says that all gases behave in exactly the same way and obey the same equation of state, when the units in which pressure, volume, and temperature are measured are adapted to the gas under specific consideration. Kamerlingh Onnes was greatly interested in this theory, for he had concluded that the conformity in the behavior of gases could be found in “the stationary mechanical similarity of the substances,” as he stated in his Nobel address. He was “mightily attracted” by the idea of carrying out precise measurements in order to verify the results of this theory. For this purpose he would have to consider the behavior of gases with simple molecules having low condensation temperatures.

Moreover, since it would be important to have a large range of temperatures at his disposal, it was desirable to use the lowest temperatures possible. Just five years earlier (December 1877) Cailletet and Pictet, using different, methods, had liquefied air for the first time and so opened this new temperature region. It was necessary for Kamerlingh Onnes first to build an apparatus for the liquefaction of air in large quantities. Here the advantage of his method became evident. He did his work with great accuracy and perseverance, systematically, and with attention to all details, thus obtaining important results and advancing far ahead of all other researchers in this field. In 1892 his apparatus for the “cascade method” (using liquid methyl chloride and ethylene) for the liquefaction of oxygen and air was ready . (Boiling points of oxygen and air of normal composition are –183°C. and –193°C., respectively.) In the meantime much information was obtained about the behavior of pure gases and binary gas mixtures, a study that could be extended, after 1892, to lower temperatures.

The research of Kamerlingh Onnes and his collaborators followed two lines, one related to van der Waals’s theories (equation of state, viscosity, capillarity), and the other to the theoretical work of Lorentz (magnetorotation of the plane of polarization, Kerr effect, Hall effect). In a volume commemorating Kamerlingh Onnes’ forty years as a professor Lorentz referred to an earlier book (1904), similarly in his honor: Many a physicist would be glad if, at the end of his career, he could look back at researches of the quantity and importance of those which are described in that book. But in the following years all this proved to be only an overture to a higher flight in which results and points of view were reached of which originally even the most daring imagination had not been able to dream. This “higher flight” became possible by the liquefaction of hydrogen and helium, which have boiling points of –252.7°C. and –268.9°C. (20.4 K. and 4.2 K.).

In February 1906 the hydrogen liquefier was ready, and on 10 July 1908 helium was first liquefied. Construction of the helium liquefier was facilitated by knowledge of the law of corresponding states. With this liquefaction a vast new temperature region was opened for research—a field in which, until his retirement in 1923. Kamerlingh Onnes remained absolute monarch. It was evident that the simple van der Waals law, ,where p, T, and V are pressure, temperature, and volume and R, a, and b are constants, could not represent the results of the measurements quantitatively. Therefore Kamerlingh Onnes set up the experimental law where A (= RT for one mole), B, C, . . ., which he called the virial coefficients, depand on the temperature. For this dependance he wrote with similar expressions for C, D, F, and F. In this way he had twenty-five coefficients to describe the measured values. This did not lead to a better formulation of the law of corresponding states, but the second virial coefficient B and sometimes C as well are commonly used to represent deviations from the ideal gas law.

The study of the resistance of metals was Kamerlingh Onnes’ second major field. Originally accepting the idea expressed in 1902 by Kelvin, he expected that with decreasing temperature the resistance, after reaching a minimum value, would become infinite as electrons condensed on the metal atoms. Later, when this proved to contradict experimental results, he supposed that the resistance, caused by Planck vibrators which lose their energy at low temperatures, would become zero. This proved to be true although, for certain metals, in a way different from that he expected. In order to diminish the influence of impurities, very pure mercury resistors were prepared. To Kamerlingh Onnes’ great surprise the resistance showed a discontinuous decrease to zero. Discovered in 1911, this phenomenon, which he called superconductivity (later superconductivity), was found for various metals having different temperatures. J. Bardeen, J. N. Cooper, and J. R. Schrieffer gave a theoretical explanation of this phenomenon in 1957.

Kamerlingh Onnes had originally hoped that this property would allow him to establish strong magnetic fields without cooling difficulties; but he soon found that the superconductive state disappears in a magnetic field of a temperature-dependent value, never very high in the cases he studied. Also, a current sent through a superconducting wire destroys the superconductive state by its own magnetic field. Only today, after the discovery of alloys that can support strong the possible to take advantage of superconductivity for cheap production of very intense magnetic fields. In 1913 Kamerlingh Onnes received the Nobel Prize in physics “for researches on the properties of matter at low temperatures, which researches have among others also led to the liquefaction of helium.” He received honors from the Dutch and foreign governments and was a member of many academies and societies. An especial honor was his election to membership in the Royal Academy of Sciences in Amsterdam before he was thirty. Kamerlingh Onnes was also concerned with the application of low temperatures in everyday matters such as food preservation, refrigerated transport, and the production of ice.

In 1908, at the opening ceremonies of the first International Congress of Refrigeration in paris, he “formally proposed the creation of an international organization of refrigeration which would further the work of the congress.” He insisted that one of the commissions be devoted to scientific problems. In the Netherlands he stimulated the foundation of the Nederlandsche Vereeniging voor Koeltechniek, of which he was president until his death. Another organization for which Kamerlingh Onnes was responsible was the Vereening tot Bevordering van de Opleiding tot Instrumentmaker (1901). The workshops of his laboratory were organized as a school, the Leidsche Instrumentmakersschool. This establishment has been of great importance in training instrument makers, glassblowers, and glass polishers in the Netherlands. BIBLIOGRAPHY I. Original Works. Most of Kamerlingh Onnes’ writings can be found in the Proceedings of the Section of Sciences of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences in Amsterdam and the Verhandelingen (later Verslagen) of the meetings of the Academy. Reprints of these works are in Communications from the Physical Laboratory at the University of Leiden.

Review articles on most of his research can also be found in the Reports and Communications presented by the president of the First Commission of the International Institute of Refrigeration to the third and fourth International Congresses of Refrigeration. Among his works are “Algemeene theorie der vloeistoffen,” in Verhandelingen der K. akademie van wetenschappen, 21 (1881), and the following writings that appeared in Communications from the Physical Laboratory at the University of Leiden: “On the Cryogenic Laboratory at Leiden and on the Production of Very Low Temperatures.” in Communication, 14 (1894), which gives a review of the work of the first twelve years, including the liquefaction of oxygen; “The Importance of Accurate Measurements at Very Low Temperatures.” in Communication, supp. 9 (1904), his address as rector magnificus of the University of Leiden on its 329th anniversary; “Die Zustandsgleichung,” in in Communication, supp. 23 (1912), repr. from Encyklopädie der mathematischen Wissenschaften, V, pt.

10 (1912), written with W. H. Keesom; “Untersuchungen über die Eigenschaften der Körper bei niedrigen Temperaturen, welche Untersuchungen unter asderen auch zur Herstellung von flüssigem Helium geführt habn,” in Communication, supp. 35 (1913), his Nobel adress; and “On the Lowest Temperature Yet Obtained,” in Communication, 159 (1922), a paper read at the joint meeting of the Faraday Society and the British Cold Storage and Ice Association, repr. from Transactions of the Faraday Society, 18 (1922). The liquefaction of hydrogen is described in Communication, 94 (1906), and that of helium in Communication, 108 (1908). The empirical eauation of state is introduced and discussed in Communication, 74 (1901). The superconductivity of mercury is treated in Communication, 122B and 124C (1911). II. Secondary Literature.

In Memoriam Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (Ledien, 1926) contains many of the newspaper obituaries and addresses at scientific societies, a review of his work, and a sketch of his personality; most of these are in Dutch. A similar work is Ernst Choen, “Kamerlingh Onnes Memorial Lecture,” in journal of the Chemical Society (1927), p. 1193. see also Gedenkboek aangeboden aan H. Kamerlingh Onnes 10 Juli 1904 (Leiden, 1904), and Het Natuurkundig laboratorium der Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden in de jaren 1904-1922 (Leiden, 1922). J. Van Den Handel Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. MLA Heike Kamerlingh Onnes Biography, Facts and Quotes Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was a Dutch physicist and Nobel Prize winner. Early life Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was born on September 21, 1853, Groningen, Netherlands.

His father was a brickwork owner by the name of Harm Kamerlingh Onnes while his mother was Anna Gerdina Coers of Arnhem. Education In 1870, Kamerlingh Onnes attended the University of Groningen, from 1871 to 1873 he attended the University of Heidelberg. Onnes obtained his masters degree at Groningen in 1878 and a doctorate in 1879. Achievements Onnes measured the electrical conductivity of pure metals, Kamerlingh Onnes found that at 4.2 K the resistance in a solid mercury wire immersed in liquid helium suddenly vanished. He was momentarily aware of the significance of his discovery. He named this phenomenon “superconductivity”. Soon enough his research was in focus of the global scientific community and he was awarded the Nobel prize in Physics in 1913. Later life Kamerlingh Onnes passed away on February 21, 1926, in Leyden due to illness and the delicate state of his health.

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes quotes “According to my views, aiming at quantitative investigations, that is at establishing relations between measurements of phenomena, should take first place in the experimental practice of physics. By measurement to knowledge [door meten tot weten] I should like to write as a motto above the entrance to every physics laboratory.” “The experiment left no doubt that, as far as accuracy of measurement went, the resistance disappeared. At the same time, however, something unexpected occurred. The disappearance did not take place gradually but abruptly. From 1/500 the resistance at 4.2K, it could be established that the resistance had become less than a thousand-millionth part of that at normal temperature.

Thus the mercury at 4.2K has entered a new state, which, owing to its particular electrical properties, can be called the state of superconductivity.” Leave a Reply This Month in Physics History This Month in Physics History April 1911: Onnes Begins work on Superconductivity Heike Kamerlingh Onnes This year, 2007, the physics community celebrates the 20th anniversary of the “Woodstock of Physics” conference on high temperature superconductors and the 50th anniversary of the BCS theory of superconductivity. However, the story of superconductivity begins in 1911, when Heike Kamerlingh Onnes first discovered the phenomenon. Kamerlingh Onnes was born on September 21, 1853, in Groningen, in the Netherlands. His father owned a bricklaying business. Onnes entered the University of Groningen in 1870, spent two years in Heidelberg from 1871 to 1873, and then returned to Groningen, where he received his doctorate in physics in 1879.

Onnes, known as “the gentleman of absolute zero,” devoted his career to a quest to reach lower and lower temperatures and explore the behavior of matter at those extremely low temperatures. He began that quest in about 1882, when he joined the faculty at Leiden University and started studying low temperature gases. A dedicated experimenter, his motto was “Door meten tot weten” (“Knowledge through measurement”). In 1898 Onnes’ rival, James Dewar, beat him in the race to liquefy hydrogen. Onnes then moved on to a new goal, liquefying helium, and this time, Onnes beat Dewar in the race, producing the first liquid helium in July 1908. Though he only liquefied a tiny amount of helium at that time, the liquefaction of helium made it possible to cool other substances to such low temperatures. Onnes managed to cool the liquid to about one degree above absolute zero, at the time the coldest temperature ever achieved. Liquid helium was difficult to work with, so Onnes spent the next three years developing apparatus for using and storing the liquid helium for use in further studies.

Rather than continuing on the quest to reach lower and lower temperatures, Onnes turned his attention to using the liquid helium to study the properties of matter near absolute zero. In the spring of 1911, Onnes began his studies of electrical conductivity of metals at low temperature. Physicists at the time knew that resistance generally dropped as a sample was cooled, but they had no idea what happened when the temperature reached the extreme lows near absolute zero. Some had hypothesized that resistance would continue dropping slowly, finally reaching zero when the temperature reached zero. Others believed resistance would level off at some constant value. Still others, including Lord Kelvin, believed that near absolute zero electrons would essentially freeze into place and resistance would become infinite. Onnes intended to resolve the question. Believing that any impurities in a metal would spoil his results, Onnes chose mercury for his studies because he could produce extremely pure samples of the metal. He had been working with gold at the time as well, but selected mercury instead, a fortunate choice, since had he stuck with gold he would not have discovered superconductivity. Keeping the mercury in a U-shaped tube with wires at both ends, he passed a current through it and measured resistance as he lowered the temperature.

At first, as the temperature dropped, the resistance also dropped slowly. Then, suddenly, at 4.19 Kelvin, the resistance abruptly vanished. Onnes was shocked. This was not what anyone had predicted. At first Onnes didn’t believe what he saw; he thought perhaps there was a short circuit or some other problem with the apparatus. He and his team repeated the experiment until finally Onnes became convinced that the surprising effect was indeed real. In late April 1911, he published his first paper, titled “The resistance of pure mercury at helium temperatures” in the Communications from the Physical Laboratory at Leiden. He published a second paper in May, and in November 1911, Onnes published another paper entitled “On the Sudden Change in the Rate at which Resistance of Mercury Disappears.” Soon after finding the effect in mercury, Onnes showed that tin and lead also become superconducting at low temperatures. Though other physicists did not immediately grasp the importance of the discovery–a presentation Onnes gave at a conference in 1912 generated little excitement–Onnes quickly recognized the commercial potential.

He predicted that someday superconducting wires would carry electricity to consumers, providing a cheap and almost unlimited supply of electricity. But Onnes was disappointed within a couple years when he discovered that a supercurrent would be destroyed by even a small magnetic field. In 1913 Onnes first used the term “supraconductivity,” to describe the effect; later he changed it to “superconductivity.” By 1914 he had found another interesting feature: he started a supercurrent flowing in a lead wire, and a year later, found that it was still flowing, with no noticeable change. Onnes won the Nobel Prize in 1913, just two years after his incredible discovery. He was cited for his work in low temperature physics, especially the liquefaction of helium, but not specifically for superconductivity. Having been in delicate health for much of his life, Onnes died in 1926. For decades after Onnes’ initial discovery, no one could explain how the effect worked. Onnes himself had believed that quantum mechanics would explain the effect, but he wasn’t able to produce a theory.

Finally, in 1957, Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer came up with a successful theory to explain superconductivity. In 1986 Bednorz and Mueller discovered the first high temperature superconductors, a breakthrough that led to an explosion of further research and a nearly all-night conference at the APS March Meeting in 1987 known as the “Woodstock of Physics.” Superconductors are used today in levitating trains, MRI devices, in high energy physics, and in some electrical power applications. ©1995 - 2017, AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY APS encourages the redistribution of the materials included in this newspaper provided that attribution to the source is noted and the materials are not truncated or changed. Editor: Alan Chodos Absolute Hero: Heike Onnes's Discovery of Superconductors Turns 100 [Slide Show] - Scientific American Scientific American RSS Absolute Hero: Heike Onnes's Discovery of Superconductors Turns 100 [Slide Show] A century after the discovery of materials that conduct electricity without resistance, the applications remain disappointingly limited.

That may be about to change Share on Facebook Credits: Leiden Institute of Physics Report Ad Absolute Hero: Heike Onnes's Discovery of Superconductors Turns 100 [Slide Show] Share THE IRON AGE OF SUPERCONDUCTORS In 2006 Hideo Hosono (pictured) and his team at the Tokyo Institute of Technology were trying to create new materials for flat-panel displays when they stumbled on an entirely new kind of high-temperature superconductor. Their material, made of iron, oxygen, phosphorus and the rare element lanthanum, created a buzz in physics circles and sparked an explosion in research. No one expected an iron compound could be superconducting, because iron is magnetic and magnetic fields were thought to be incompatible with superconductivity. Hideo Hosono THE WOODSTOCK OF PHYSICS: Physicists crammed into a hastily arranged session at a 1987 meeting of the American Physical Society—a session that went on until 3:15 A.M. the next morning and became known as the "Woodstock of physics". Outside, hundreds of others watched on closed-circuit TV screens. The excitement, rather unusual for a physics meeting, was justifiable.

Just a few months before, IBM researchers Karl Müller and Johannes Bednorz had unexpectedly discovered that family of ceramic materials, called cuprates, became superconducting at higher temperatures than the 30 K that physicists believed was the limit for superconductivity. All of a sudden it seemed that the sky was the limit. Whereas the BCS seemed to require low temperatures, perhaps this new phenomenon could extend even to room temperature. Researchers soon realized that the cuprates did not obey BCS theory. To this day, there is no conclusive explanation for how high-temperature superconductors work: This question remains one of the holy grails of theoretical physics. Müller and Bednorz received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1987. American Institute of Physics CRACKING THE PUZZLE: In 1957 the U.S. physicists John Bardeen (who had already shared a Nobel Prize for the discovery of the transistor), Leon Neil Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer finally cracked the puzzle of superconductivity—a goal that had eluded minds of the caliber of Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg and Richard Feynman.

Their theory became known by the first letters of their last names—BCS theory—and earned them a Nobel Prize in Physics 1972. In metals atoms donate one of more of their electrons to a common pool of "conduction electrons". The positively charged ions left behind form a regular crystal lattice. When electrons collide with the ions, they may lose energy, which is why ordinary conductors dissipate heat. Graham P. Collins described BCS theory in the August 2009 issue of Scientific American. When an electron moves inside the metal its negative charge, Collins wrote, "tugs on the metal's ions" and "leaves in its wake a temporary region of distorted lattice"; this distortion travels along the lattice and is, in essence, a quantum of mechanical vibration. Because the distorted region has a slightly increased density of positive charge, a second electron may experience a small attractive force toward it. In a superconducting state, when the material is cold enough, two electrons can then travel close together—despite having like charges—and form a common quantum state of twice the charge, called a Cooper pair. These double particles in turn form wavelike quantum states that can travel along the material unimpeded.

National High Magnetic Field Laboratory ONNES'S LOST NOTEBOOK: "Mercury practically zero." Onnes wrote those words in his notebook at 4 P.M. on April 8, 1911, when his assistant Gilles Holst reported that at the temperature of 3 K the resistance in mercury dropped so low it could no longer be measured. The historic remark is on the right-hand side, seventh line from the bottom, and reads in Dutch: "Kwik nagenoeg nul." This notebook, numbered 56, was mislabeled as being from 1910 instead of 1911, and was scribbled in to the point that the handwriting is almost incomprehensible. So, for many decades, historians thought that the 1911 notebook recording the great discovery had been lost. But in October 2009 recently retired physicist Peter Kes of the University of Leiden began a painstaking study of Onnes's notebooks and realized notebook 56 ended by recording the visit of Marie Curie to the lab. Curie had visited in July 1911, which means that the notebook could not have been from the year before.

"The deciphering was quite a job," Kes recalls. The discovery cleared various misconceptions concerning superconductivity's discovery and, in particular, that it had happened by accident because a lab technician had fallen asleep. Boerhaave Museum Advertisement WHEN RESISTANCE DISAPPEARED: This graph of how electrical resistance (vertical axis) depends on temperature (horizontal axis) shows the resistance of mercury suddenly dropping to zero at around 3 K. Courtesy of Dirk van Delft THE CRYOGENIC APPARATUS: This diagram details the system of cryogenic pumps and flasks built by Onnes and his assistant Gerrit Jan Flim; the capillaries holding mercury were made by the lab's master glassblower Oskar Kesselring. Leiden Institute of Physics HEIKE KAMERLINGH ONNES: Onnes (1853–1926) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1913—not for discovering superconductivity but for liquefying helium. But it was his discovery of the former that made him famous. Onnes observed the phenomenon while trying to answer an open question about electrons. At the temperatures of liquid helium, ordinary thermometers would freeze.

Physicists could still measure temperature by measuring the electrical resistance in metals, based on the empirical observation that electrical resistance was directly proportional to temperature. That idea, however, had never been tested close to absolute zero. Two competing theories existed for what would happen: Lord Kelvin had postulated that electrons in a metal would "freeze," and thus stop moving. The conductor would therefore become an insulator. German theorist Paul Drude instead maintained that electrons inside a metal acted like a gas, so that resistance would gradually and linearly approach zero. As Onnes showed, neither theory was correct.

Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory THE LEIDEN CRYOGENIC LABORATORY: Built by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and pictured here in 1895, the Leiden Cryogenic Laboratory was, in the words of science historian Dirk van Delft, "a profusion of tubes, taps, gas flasks, gas holders, liquefiers, Dewar flasks, cryostats, clattering pumps and droning engines, glassblowing and other workshops, instruments and appliances for scientific research." It was here that on July 10, 1908, Onnes managed to liquefy helium—at 5 kelvins (about –268 degrees Celsius)—for the first time in history. That was the lowest temperature ever achieved, and no other lab would be able to match it until 1923. (The noble gas itself had only been isolated in 1895, by Scottish chemist William Ramsay; James Dewar's vacuum flask, aka the thermos bottle, had been invented in 1892.) The building that hosted the lab is now the Leiden Law School. Leiden Institute of Physics

Question: What did Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes discover?
Answer: Superconductivity