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Sir James Dewar | |
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| Born | (1842-09-20)20 September 1842 Kincardine-on-Forth, Scotland |
| Died | 27 March 1923(1923-03-27) (aged 80) London, England |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics,chemistry |
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| Doctoral advisor | Lord Playfair |
Sir James DewarFRS FRSE (/djuːər/DEW-ər;[1] 20 September 1842 – 27 March 1923) was a Scottishchemist andphysicist. He is best known for his invention of thevacuum flask, which he used in conjunction for his research into theliquefaction of gases. He also studied atomic and molecularspectroscopy, working in these fields for more than 25 years. Dewar was nominated for theNobel Prize 8 times — 5 times inPhysics and 3 times inChemistry — but he was never so honoured.[2]
James Dewar was born inKincardine,Perthshire (now inFife) in 1842, the youngest of six boys of Ann Dewar and Thomas Dewar, avintner.[3] He was educated at Kincardine Parish School and thenDollar Academy, and his parents died when he was 15. He attended theUniversity of Edinburgh where he studied chemistry underLyon Playfair (later Baron Playfair), becoming Playfair's personal assistant. Later, Dewar also studied underAugust Kekulé atGhent University.
In 1875, Dewar was elected Jacksonian professor of natural experimental philosophy at theUniversity of Cambridge, becoming a member ofPeterhouse.[4] He became a member of theRoyal Institution and later, in 1877, replacedDr. John Hall Gladstone as Fullerian Professor of Chemistry. Dewar was also the President of theSociety of Chemical Industry from 1887-88,[5] President of theChemical Society in 1897 and theBritish Association for the Advancement of Science in 1902, as well as serving on theRoyal Commission established to examine London's water supply from 1893 to 1894 and the Committee on Explosives. While serving on the Committee on Explosives, he andFrederick Augustus Abel developedcordite, a smokelessgunpowder alternative.
In 1867, Dewar described several chemical formulas forbenzene, which were published in 1869.[6] One of the formulae, which does not represent benzene correctly and was not advocated by Dewar, is sometimes still referred to asDewar benzene.[7] In 1869, he was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Edinburgh, after being nominated by his former mentor, Lyon Playfair.[3]
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His scientific work covers a wide field – his earlier papers cover topics includingorganic chemistry,hydrogen and its physical constants, high-temperature research, the temperature of the Sun and theelectric spark,spectrophotometry, and the chemistry of theelectric arc.
WithProfessor J. G. McKendrick, of theUniversity of Glasgow, he investigated thephysiological action of light and examined the changes that take place in the electrical condition of theretina under its influence. WithProfessor G. D. Liveing, one of his colleagues at theUniversity of Cambridge, he began in 1878 a long series of spectroscopic observations, the latter of which were devoted to the spectroscopic examination of various gaseous elements separated from atmospheric air under extremely cold conditions. He also joinedProfessor J. A. Fleming, ofUniversity College London, in the investigation of the electrical behaviour of substances cooled to very low temperatures.
His name is most widely known in connection with his work on the liquefaction of the so-called permanent gases and his research at temperatures approachingabsolute zero.[8] His interest in this branch of physics and chemistry dates back at least as far as 1874, when he discussed the "Latent Heat of Liquid Gases" before the British Association. In 1878, he devoted a Friday evening lecture at theRoyal Institution to the then-recent work ofLouis Paul Cailletet andRaoul Pictet, and exhibited for the first time in Great Britain the working of the Cailletet apparatus. Six years later, again at the Royal Institution, he described the research ofZygmunt Florenty Wróblewski andKarol Olszewski, and illustrated for the first time in public theliquefaction ofoxygen and air. Soon afterward, he built a machine from which the liquefied gas could be drawn off through a valve for use as a cooling agent, before using the liquid oxygen in research work related to meteorites; about the same time, he also obtained oxygen in the solid state.
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By 1891, he had designed and built, at the Royal Institution, machinery which yielded liquid oxygen in industrial quantities, and towards the end of that year, he showed that magnets strongly attract both liquid oxygen and liquid ozone. Around 1892, the idea occurred to him of using vacuum-jacketed vessels for the storage of liquid gases – the Dewar flask (otherwise known as a Thermos orvacuum flask) – the invention for which he became most famous. The vacuum flask was so efficient at keeping heat out, it was found possible to preserve liquids for comparatively long periods without the need for refrigeration, making examination of their optical properties possible. Dewar did not profit from the widespread adoption of his vacuum flask – he lost a court case againstThermos concerning the patent for his invention. Although he was recognised as its inventor, there was no way for him to prevent Thermos from using his design since he did not patent his invention.[9]
His next project was to experiment with a high-pressure hydrogen jet by which low temperatures were realised through theJoule–Thomson effect, and the successful results he obtained led him to build a largeregenerative cooling refrigerating machine at the Royal Institution. Using this machine in 1898,liquid hydrogen was collected for the first time, solidhydrogen following in 1899. He tried to liquefy the last remaining gas,helium, which condenses into a liquid at −268.9 °C, but owing to a number of factors, including a short supply of helium, Dewar was preceded byHeike Kamerlingh Onnes as the first person to produceliquid helium, in 1908. Onnes would later be awarded theNobel Prize in Physics for his research into the properties of matter at low temperatures – Dewar was nominated several times, but never succeeded in winning the Nobel Prize.[9]
In 1905, he and J. A. Fleming began to investigate the gas-absorbing powers ofcharcoal when cooled to low temperatures and applied his research into the creation of a high vacuum, which was used for further experiments inatomic physics. Dewar continued his research work into the properties of elements at low temperatures, specifically low-temperaturecalorimetry, until the outbreak ofWorld War I. The Royal Institution laboratories lost a number of staff to the war effort, both in fighting and scientific roles, and after the war, Dewar had little interest in restarting the serious research work that had gone on before the war. Shortages of scholars necessarily compounded the problems. His research during and after the war mainly involved investigatingsurface tension in soap bubbles and the detection of infrared radiation in the atmosphere,[10] rather than further work into the properties of matter at low temperatures.
Dewar died on 27 March 1923, aged 80, and was cremated atGolders Green Crematorium in London. An urn with his ashes still resides there.
He married Helen Rose Banks in 1871. They had no children. Helen was a sister-in-law to bothCharles Dickson, Lord Dickson andJames Douglas Hamilton Dickson.[3]
Dewar's nephew, Dr. Thomas William DewarFRSE, was an amateur artist who painted a portrait of Sir James Dewar.[11] He is presumably also the same Thomas William Dewar who was mentioned as theexecutor in James Dewar's will, ultimately replaced "unopposed" by Dewar's wife.[12]
Dewar was invited to deliver severalRoyal Institution Christmas Lectures:
Although Dewar was never recognised by theSwedish Academy, he was recognised by many other institutions both before and after his death, in Britain and overseas.The Royal Society elected him aFellow of the Royal Society in June 1877 and bestowed theirRumford (1894),Davy (1909), andCopley Medal (1916) medals upon him for his work, as well as inviting him to deliver theirBakerian Lecture in 1901.[13] In 1899, he became the first recipient of theHodgkins gold medal of theSmithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, for his contributions to knowledge of the nature and properties of atmospheric air. That same year, he was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society,[14] and was elected to the United StatesNational Academy of Sciences in 1907.[15]
He was President of theSociety of Chemical Industry from 1887-88.[16]
In 1904, he became the first British subject to receive theLavoisier Medal of the French Academy of Sciences, and in 1906, he was the first to be awarded theMatteucci Medal of the Italian Society of Sciences. He was knighted in 1904 and awarded the Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize for 1900–1904 by theRoyal Society of Edinburgh, and in 1908, he was awarded theAlbert Medal ofThe Society of Arts. Alunar crater was named in his honour.
A street within theKings Buildings complex of the University of Edinburgh was named in memory of Dewar in the early 21st century.
Dewar's bad temper was legendary. Rowlinson (2012) called him "ruthless", particularly with his colleague Siegfried Ruhemann.[17]
Collected Papers on Spectroscopy., G. D. Living and J. Dewar, Cambridge University Press, 1915
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dewar, Sir James".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 137.
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| Preceded by | Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy 1875–1923 | Succeeded by |
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