Sir James Dewar FRS (20 September 1842 – 27 March 1923) was a Scottish chemist and physicist. He is apparently best-known today for his apparatus of the Dewar flask, which he acclimated in affiliation with all-encompassing analysis into the condensate of gases. He was additionally decidedly absorbed in diminutive and atomic spectroscopy, alive in these fields for added than 25 years.
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Early life
James Dewar was built-in in Kincardine-on-Forth in 1842, the youngest of six boys. He absent his parents at the age of 15. He was accomplished at Dollar Academy and the University of Edinburgh, area he advised beneath Lord Playfair, and after became Lord Playfair's assistant. Dewar would additionally abstraction beneath August Kekulé at Ghent.
Career
In 1875, Dewar was adopted Jacksonian assistant of accustomed beginning aesthetics at the University of Cambridge, acceptable a adolescent of Peterhouse.1 He became a affiliate of the Royal Institution and later, replaced Dr. John Hall Gladstone in the role of Fullerian Assistant of Allure in 1877. Dewar was additionally the President of the Actinic Society in 1897 and the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1902, as able-bodied as confined on the Royal Commission accustomed to appraise London's baptize accumulation from 1893 to 1894 and the Committee on Explosives. It was whilst he was confined on the Committee on Explosives that he and Frederick Augustus Abel developed cordite, a smokeless armament alternative.
In 1867 Dewar declared several actinic formulae for benzene.2 Ironically, one of the formulae, which does not represent benzene accurately and was not advocated by Dewar, is sometimes still alleged Dewar benzene.3
His accurate assignment covers a advanced acreage - his beforehand cardboard awning a advanced ambit of topics; amoebic chemistry, Hydrogen and its concrete constants, aerial temperature research, the temperature of the sun and of the electric spark, electro-photometry and the allure of the electric arc.
With Assistant J. G. McKendrick, of Glasgow, he advised the physiological activity of light, and advised the changes which booty abode in the electrical action of the retina beneath its influence. With Assistant G. D. Living, one of his colleagues at Cambridge, he began in 1878 a continued alternation of spectroscopic observations, the afterwards of which were adherent to the spectroscopic assay of assorted aerial elements afar from atmospheric air by the aid of low temperatures; and he was abutting by Assistant J. A. Fleming, of University College London, in the analysis of the electrical behaviour of substances cooled to actual low temperatures.
Sir James Dewar at work
His name is best broadly accepted in affiliation with his assignment on the condensate of the alleged abiding gases and his researches at temperatures abutting complete zero. His absorption in this annex of physics and allure dates aback at diminutive as far as 1874, back he discussed the "Latent Calefaction of Aqueous Gases" afore the British Association. In 1878 he adherent a Friday black address at the Royal Institution to the afresh contempo assignment of Louis Paul Cailletet and Raoul Pictet, and apparent for the aboriginal time in Great Britain the alive of the Cailletet apparatus. Six years later, afresh at the Royal Institution, he declared the researches of Zygmunt Florenty Wróblewski and Karol Olszewski, and illustrated for the aboriginal time in accessible the condensate of oxygen and air. Soon afterwards he congenital a apparatus from which the abounding gas could be fatigued off through a valve for use as a cooling agent, afore application the aqueous oxygen in analysis assignment accompanying to meteorites; about the aforementioned time he additionally acquired oxygen in the solid state.
By 1891 he had advised and built, at the Royal Institution, accouterment which yielded aqueous oxygen in automated quantities, and appear the end of that year he showed that both aqueous oxygen and aqueous blast are acerb admiring by a magnet. About 1892 the abstraction occurred to him of application vacuum-jacketed argosy for the accumulator of aqueous gases - the Dewar alembic (otherwise accepted as a Thermos or exhaustion flask) - the apparatus for which he became best famous. The exhaustion alembic was so able at befitting calefaction out that it was begin accessible to bottle the liquids for analogously continued periods, authoritative assay of their optical backdrop possible. Dewar did not accumulation from the boundless acceptance of his exhaustion alembic - he absent a cloister case adjoin Thermos apropos the apparent for his invention. While Dewar was recognised as the inventor, because he did not apparent his apparatus there was no way to stop Thermos from application the design.4
He abutting experimented with a aerial burden hydrogen jet by which low temperatures were accomplished through the Joule–Thomson effect, and the acknowledged after-effects he acquired led him to body at the Royal Institution a ample adorning cooling refrigerating machine. Application this apparatus in 1898, aqueous hydrogen was calm for the aboriginal time, solid hydrogen afterward in 1899. He approved to adulterate the aftermost actual gas, Helium, which condenses into a aqueous at −268.9°C, but attributable to a cardinal of factors, including a abridgement of Helium with which to work, Dewar was preceded by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes as the aboriginal being to aftermath aqueous helium, in 1908. Onnes would afterwards be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his analysis into the backdrop of amount at low temperatures - Dewar was nominated several times but never acknowledged in acceptable the Nobel Prize.4
In 1905 he began to investigate the gas-absorbing admiral of charcoal back cooled to low temperatures, and activated his analysis to the assembly of aerial vacuums, which were advantageous for added abstracts in diminutive physics. Dewar would abide his analysis assignment into the backdrop of elements at low temperatures, accurately low-temperature calorimetry, until the beginning of World War I. The Royal Institution laboratories absent a cardinal of agents to the war effort, both in angry and accurate roles, and afterwards the war, Dewar had little absorption in re-starting the austere analysis assignment which went on afore the War. Shortages of advisers necessarily circuitous the problems. His analysis during and afterwards the war mainly complex investigating apparent astriction in soap bubbles, rather than added assignment into the backdrop of amount at low temperatures.
In 1867 Dewar declared several actinic formulae for benzene.2 Ironically, one of the formulae, which does not represent benzene accurately and was not advocated by Dewar, is sometimes still alleged Dewar benzene.3
His accurate assignment covers a advanced acreage - his beforehand cardboard awning a advanced ambit of topics; amoebic chemistry, Hydrogen and its concrete constants, aerial temperature research, the temperature of the sun and of the electric spark, electro-photometry and the allure of the electric arc.
With Assistant J. G. McKendrick, of Glasgow, he advised the physiological activity of light, and advised the changes which booty abode in the electrical action of the retina beneath its influence. With Assistant G. D. Living, one of his colleagues at Cambridge, he began in 1878 a continued alternation of spectroscopic observations, the afterwards of which were adherent to the spectroscopic assay of assorted aerial elements afar from atmospheric air by the aid of low temperatures; and he was abutting by Assistant J. A. Fleming, of University College London, in the analysis of the electrical behaviour of substances cooled to actual low temperatures.
Sir James Dewar at work
His name is best broadly accepted in affiliation with his assignment on the condensate of the alleged abiding gases and his researches at temperatures abutting complete zero. His absorption in this annex of physics and allure dates aback at diminutive as far as 1874, back he discussed the "Latent Calefaction of Aqueous Gases" afore the British Association. In 1878 he adherent a Friday black address at the Royal Institution to the afresh contempo assignment of Louis Paul Cailletet and Raoul Pictet, and apparent for the aboriginal time in Great Britain the alive of the Cailletet apparatus. Six years later, afresh at the Royal Institution, he declared the researches of Zygmunt Florenty Wróblewski and Karol Olszewski, and illustrated for the aboriginal time in accessible the condensate of oxygen and air. Soon afterwards he congenital a apparatus from which the abounding gas could be fatigued off through a valve for use as a cooling agent, afore application the aqueous oxygen in analysis assignment accompanying to meteorites; about the aforementioned time he additionally acquired oxygen in the solid state.
By 1891 he had advised and built, at the Royal Institution, accouterment which yielded aqueous oxygen in automated quantities, and appear the end of that year he showed that both aqueous oxygen and aqueous blast are acerb admiring by a magnet. About 1892 the abstraction occurred to him of application vacuum-jacketed argosy for the accumulator of aqueous gases - the Dewar alembic (otherwise accepted as a Thermos or exhaustion flask) - the apparatus for which he became best famous. The exhaustion alembic was so able at befitting calefaction out that it was begin accessible to bottle the liquids for analogously continued periods, authoritative assay of their optical backdrop possible. Dewar did not accumulation from the boundless acceptance of his exhaustion alembic - he absent a cloister case adjoin Thermos apropos the apparent for his invention. While Dewar was recognised as the inventor, because he did not apparent his apparatus there was no way to stop Thermos from application the design.4
He abutting experimented with a aerial burden hydrogen jet by which low temperatures were accomplished through the Joule–Thomson effect, and the acknowledged after-effects he acquired led him to body at the Royal Institution a ample adorning cooling refrigerating machine. Application this apparatus in 1898, aqueous hydrogen was calm for the aboriginal time, solid hydrogen afterward in 1899. He approved to adulterate the aftermost actual gas, Helium, which condenses into a aqueous at −268.9°C, but attributable to a cardinal of factors, including a abridgement of Helium with which to work, Dewar was preceded by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes as the aboriginal being to aftermath aqueous helium, in 1908. Onnes would afterwards be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his analysis into the backdrop of amount at low temperatures - Dewar was nominated several times but never acknowledged in acceptable the Nobel Prize.4
In 1905 he began to investigate the gas-absorbing admiral of charcoal back cooled to low temperatures, and activated his analysis to the assembly of aerial vacuums, which were advantageous for added abstracts in diminutive physics. Dewar would abide his analysis assignment into the backdrop of elements at low temperatures, accurately low-temperature calorimetry, until the beginning of World War I. The Royal Institution laboratories absent a cardinal of agents to the war effort, both in angry and accurate roles, and afterwards the war, Dewar had little absorption in re-starting the austere analysis assignment which went on afore the War. Shortages of advisers necessarily circuitous the problems. His analysis during and afterwards the war mainly complex investigating apparent astriction in soap bubbles, rather than added assignment into the backdrop of amount at low temperatures.
Honours and Awards
Whilst Dewar was never recognised by the Swedish Academy, he was recognised by abounding added institutions both afore and afterwards his death, both in Britain and overseas. The Royal Society adopted him a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1877 and bestowed their Rumford (1894), Davy (1909), and Copley Medal(1916) medals aloft him for his work, as able-bodied as agreeable him to bear their Bakerian Lecture in 1901.5 In 1899 he became the aboriginal almsman of the Hodgkins gold badge of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., for his contributions to our ability of the attributes and backdrop of atmospheric air.
In 1904 he was the aboriginal British accountable to accept the Lavoisier badge of the French Academy of Sciences, and in 1906 he was the aboriginal to be awarded the Matteucci badge of the Italian Society of Sciences. He was knighted in 1904 and awarded the Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize for 1900-1904 by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in 1908 he was awarded the Albert badge of The Society of Arts. A lunar atrium has been called in his honor.
James Dewar died in London in 1923, still captivation the appointment of Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution, accepting banned to retire.4 He was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium area his ashes remain.
In 1904 he was the aboriginal British accountable to accept the Lavoisier badge of the French Academy of Sciences, and in 1906 he was the aboriginal to be awarded the Matteucci badge of the Italian Society of Sciences. He was knighted in 1904 and awarded the Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize for 1900-1904 by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in 1908 he was awarded the Albert badge of The Society of Arts. A lunar atrium has been called in his honor.
James Dewar died in London in 1923, still captivation the appointment of Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution, accepting banned to retire.4 He was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium area his ashes remain.
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