Freezing Physics : Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and the Quest for Cold

by Van Delft, Dirk

• ISBN13: 9789069845197
• ISBN10: 9069845199
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-07-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

In 1908, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (18531926) liquefied helium for the first time, briefly rendering his Dutch laboratory "the coldest place on earth."Freezing Physicsis the first book to tell the story of Leiden University's famed cryogenics laboratory and the man behind it, whose scientific accomplishments earned him the Nobel Prize for Physics. This fascinating portrayal of Kamerlingh Onnes traces his storied career from his first experiments with helium to his later work that opened up unexplored territories of extreme cold, magnetism, and thermodynamicsand cleared the path for the eventual discovery of superconductivity in 1911. Dirk van Delft here illuminates the scientific acuity, managerial talent, and visionary character that equipped Kamerlingh Onnes to almost single-handedly change the course of the history of physics.

Author Biography

Dirk van Delft is director of the Boerhaave Museum, the National Museum of the History of Science and Medicine, Leiden, the Netherlands.

 

 

 

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Prologue

Between Schifpot en Noorderhaven

That wonderful HBS

No drinking binges

Heidelberg

Restless atoms

'Maintain and refine'

Foucault's pendulum

Delft: corresponding states and other matters

To Leiden

New heights

'Door meten tot weten': knowledge through measurement

Monstrosity gets a face-lift

The fullness of wisdom

Cold war (i)

The Lorentz series

The Zeeman effect

A collection of explosive devices

Retrograde condensation

Into the breach for Van der Waals

The blue-collar boys

Stolen rooms and other personnel matters

Committee work: a necessary evil

Cold war (ii)

Old peat and neighbourhood squabbling

Die Zustandsgleichung

Huize ter Wetering

Monsieur Zéro Absolu

The quantum and zero-point energy

'Supra-conductivity'

A chocolate from Stockholm

World War: turning-point

Declining years

Successors

Duty, joy and harmony

Epilogue: the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory

Glossary

Illustration sources

Chronology

Sources and abbreviations/terms used in references to sources

Bibliography

Name index

Subject index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.