Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
| H. Kamerlingh Onnes | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Heike Kamerlingh Onnes 21 September 1853 Groningen, Netherlands |
| Died | 21 February 1926 (aged 72) Leiden, Netherlands |
| Nationality | Netherlands |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | University of Leiden, TU Delft |
| Alma mater | Heidelberg University University of Groningen |
| Doctoral advisor | Rudolf Adriaan Mees |
| Other academic advisors | Robert Bunsen Gustav Kirchhoff Johannes Bosscha |
| Doctoral students | Jacob Clay Claude Crommelin Wander de Haas Johannes Kuenen Remmelt Sissingh Ewoud van Everdingen Jules Verschaffelt Pieter Zeeman |
| Known for | Onnes-effect, Superconductivity |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Physics (1913) |
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (21 September 1853 – 21 February 1926) was a Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate. He pioneered refrigeration techniques and explored how materials behaved when cooled to nearly absolute zero. This led to his discovery of superconductivity: for certain materials, electrical resistance abruptly vanishes at very low temperatures.
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Biography
Early years
Kamerlingh Onnes was born in Groningen, Netherlands. His father, Harm Kamerlingh Onnes, was a brickworks owner. His mother was Anna Gerdina Coers of Arnhem.
In 1870, Kamerlingh Onnes attended the University of Groningen. He studied under Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff at the University of Heidelberg from 1871 to 1873. Again at Groningen, he obtained his masters in 1878 and a doctorate in 1879. His thesis was "Nieuwe bewijzen voor de aswenteling der aarde" (tr. New proofs of the rotation of the earth). From 1878 to 1882 he was assistant to Johannes Bosscha, the director of the Polytechnic in Delft, for whom he substituted as lecturer in 1881 and 1882.
University of Leiden
From 1882 to 1923 Kamerlingh Onnes served as professor of experimental physics at the University of Leiden. In 1904 he founded a very large cryogenics laboratory and invited other researchers to the location, which made him highly regarded in the scientific community. In 1908, he was the first physicist to liquify helium, using the Hampson-Linde cycle and cryostats. Using the Joule-Thomson effect, he lowered the temperature to less than one degree above absolute zero, reaching 0.9 K. At the time this was the coldest temperature achieved on earth. The original equipment is at the Boerhaave Museum in Leiden.
Family
He was married to Maria Adriana Wilhelmina Elisabeth Bijleveld (m. 1887) and had a child named Albert.
Superconductivity
Kamerlingh Onnes conducted (in 1911) electrical analysis of pure metals (mercury, tin and lead) at very low temperatures. Some, such as William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), believed that electrons flowing through a conductor would come to a complete halt or, in other words, metal resistivity will become infinity at absolute zero. Others, including Kamerlingh Onnes, felt that a conductor's electrical resistance would steadily decrease and drop to nil. Augustus Matthiessen pointed out when the temperature decreases, the metal conductivity usually improves or in other words, the electrical resistivity usually decreases with a decrease of temperature [1].
At 4.2 kelvin the resistance in a mercury column under test suddenly vanished. Kamerlingh Onnes initially thought that the wiring to their test apparatus had shorted out. It was only after changes in the experiment that he realized that the effect was real.[2] Kamerlingh Onnes stated that the "Mercury has passed into a new state, which on account of its extraordinary electrical properties may be called the superconductive state". He published more articles about the phenomenon, initially referring to it as "supraconductivity" and, only later adopting the term "superconductivity".
Kamerlingh Onnes received widespread recognition for his work, including the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physics for (in the words of the committee) "his investigations on the properties of matter at low temperatures which led, inter alia, to the production of liquid helium".
Legacy
Some of the instruments he devised for his experiments can still be seen at the Boerhaave Museum in Leiden. The apparatus he used to first liquefy helium is on display in the lobby of the physics department at Leiden University, where the low temperature lab is also named in his honor. His student and successor as director of the lab Willem Hendrik Keesom was the first person who was able to solidify helium, in 1926.
The Onnes-effect referring to the creeping of superfluid Helium is named in his honor.
The crater Kamerlingh Onnes on the Moon is named after him.
Honors and awards
- Matteucci Medal (1910)
- Rumford Medal (1912)
- Nobel Prize for Physics (1913)
- Franklin Medal (1915)
Selected publications
- Kamerlingh Onnes, H., "Nieuwe bewijzen voor de aswenteling der aarde." Ph.D. dissertation. Groningen, Netherlands, 1879.
- Kamerlingh Onnes, H., "Algemeene theorie der vloeistoffen." Amsterdam Akad. Verhandl; 21, 1881.
- Kamerlingh Onnes, H., "On the Cryogenic Laboratory at Leyden and on the Production of Very Low Temperature." Comm. Phys. Lab. Univ. Leiden; 14, 1894.
- Kamerlingh Onnes, H., "Théorie générale de l'état fluide." Haarlem Arch. Neerl.; 30, 1896.
- Kamerlingh Onnes, H., "The Superconductivity of Mercury." Comm. Phys. Lab. Univ. Leiden; Nos. 122 and 124, 1911.
- Kamerlingh Onnes, H., "On the Lowest Temperature Yet Obtained." Comm. Phys. Lab. Univ. Leiden; No. 159, 1922.
See also
- Timeline of low-temperature technology
- Timeline of states of matter and phase transitions
- Coldest temperature achieved on earth
- List of Nobel laureates
- History of superconductivity
- Harm Kamerlingh Onnes
References
- ↑ Matthiessen, A. Philosophical Transactions; 1862 and also Philosophical Transactions; 1864
- ↑ Kammerlingh Onnes Begins Work on Superconductivity
Further reading
- de Bruyn Ouboter, Rudolf (March 1997). "Heike Kamerlingh Onnes’s Discovery of Superconductivity" (PDF). Scientific American 276 (3): 98–103. doi:10.1007/s00016-003-0193-8. http://rodin.hep.iastate.edu/jc/322-03/sciam-onnes.pdf.
- Laesecke, Arno (May–June 2002). "Through Measurement to Knowledge: The Inaugural Lecture of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1882)" (PDF). Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology 107 (3): 261–277. http://nvl.nist.gov/pub/nistpubs/jres/107/3/j73lae.pdf.
- Reif-Acherman, Simón (June 2004). "Heike Kamerlingh Onnes: Master of Experimental Technique and Quantitative Research" (PDF). Physics in Perspective 6 (2): 197–223. doi:10.1007/s00016-003-0193-8. http://www.springerlink.com/content/abn2kb4vrwx5yc2n/fulltext.pdf.
- Van Delft, D., "Heike Kamerlingh Onnes". Amsterdam, Bert Bakker, 2005. ISBN 90-351-2739-0 (in Dutch; an English translation is in preparation)
- Levelt-Sengers, J. M. H., "How fluids unmix : discoveries by the School of Van der Waals and Kamerlingh Onnes". Amsterdam, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, 2002. ISBN 90-6984-357-9
- Kamerlingh Onnes, Heike, (Gavroglou, Kōstas. [ed.], and Goudaroulis, Yorgos [ed.]) "Through measurement to knowledge : the selected papers of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853-1926)". Dordrecht, Boston, Kluwer Academic Publishers, c1991. Goudaroulis, Yorgos. ISBN 0-7923-0825-5
- International Institute of Refrigeration (First International Commission), "Rapports et communications issus du Laboratoire Kamerlingh Onnes". International Congress of Refrigeration (7th; 1936; La Hauge), Amsterdam, 1936.
External links
- Scientists of the Dutch School Kamerlingh Onnes, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Albert van Helden Heike Kamerlingh Onnes 1853 – 1926 In: K. van Berkel, A. van Helden, and L. Palm ed., A History of Science in The Netherlands. Survey, Themes and Reference (Leiden: Brill, 1999) 491 - 494.
- Nobel Prize, Physics 1913 -- official site.
- Helium liquefier, G.J. Flim, Leiden, 1908 Drawing of the Physics Laboratory in Leiden, 1921 - Boerhaave Museum Dutch National Museum of the History of Science and Medicine.
- About Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Nobel-winners.com.
- Eric W. Weisstein , Kamerlingh-Onnes, Heike (1853-1926).
- Dirk Reimer, "Historical background", A Guide to Superconductivity. 1997.
- Museum Boerhaave Negen Nederlandse Nobelprijswinnaars
- J. van den Handel, Kamerlingh Onnes, Heike (1853-1926), in Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland. (In Dutch).
- Biography of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853 – 1926) at the National library of the Netherlands.
- Freezing Physics: Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and the Quest for Cold , Van Delft Dirk (2007). Edita - The Publishing House Of The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. ISBN 9789069845197.
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Category:Nobel laureates in Physics
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