2013/10/09 by Faidra Papanelopoulou · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Chemistry · #Chemistry #Environmental science #History of Science and Natural History #Law #Liquefaction #Organic chemistry #Oxygen #Physics #Political science #Thermodynamics
paper · doi:10.1098/rsnr.2013.0047
openalex publication_date 2013/10/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
In 1877 Louis Paul Cailletet in France and Raoul Pictet in Switzerland liquefied oxygen in the form of a mist. The liquefaction of the first of the so-called permanent gases heralded the birth of low-temperature research and is often described in the literature as having started a ‘race’ for attaining progressively lower temperatures. In fact, between 1877 and 1908, when helium, the last of the permanent gases, was liquefied, there were many priority disputes—something quite characteristic of the emergence of a new research field. This paper examines Cailletet's path to the liquefaction of oxygen, as well as a debate between him and the Polish physicist Zygmunt Wróblewski over the latter's contribution to the liquefaction of gases.