Heike Kamerlingh Onnes

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
Born	September 21 1853(1853-09-21) Groningen, Netherlands
Died	February 21 1926 (aged 72) Leiden, Netherlands
Residence	Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Field	Physicist
Institutions	University of Leiden
Alma mater	Heidelberg University University of Groningen
Academic advisor	R.A. Mees
Notable students	Wander de Haas Pieter Zeeman
Known for	Superconductivity
Notable prizes	Nobel Prize for Physics (1913)

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (September 21, 1853 – February 21, 1926) was a Dutch physicist. His scientific career was spent exploring extremely cold refrigeration techniques and the associated phenomena.

Early years and professorship

Kamerlingh Onnes was born in Groningen, Netherlands. His father, Harm Kamerlingh Onnes, was the 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.

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 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.

He was married to Maria Adriana Wilhelmina Elisabeth Bijleveld (m. 1887) and 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, believed that electrons flowing through a conductor would come to a complete halt. Others, including Kamerlingh Onnes, felt that a conductor's electrical resistance would steadily decrease and drop to nil. Ludwig Matthiessen (1830-1906) pointed out when the temperature decreases, the metal resistance decreases and then becomes constant with further decrease in temperature. At 4.2 kelvin the resistance was zero. The drop to zero was experimentally observed to be abrupt. 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."

Awards

• Matteucci Medal (1910)
• Rumford Medal (1912)
• Nobel Prize for Physics (1913)

Death and afterwards

Kamerlingh Onnes died in Leiden. 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 Kamerlingh Onnes crater on the Moon was named after him by the IAU.

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

• Electricity
• Helium
• Mercury (element)
• Superconductivity
• Temperature

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• de Bruyn Ouboter, Rudolf. 1997. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes’s Discovery of Superconductivity. Scientific American. 276:3:98-103.
• Laesecke, Arno. 2002. Through Measurement to Knowledge: The Inaugural Lecture of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1882). Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. 107:3:261–277. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
• Reif-Acherman, Simón. 2004. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes: Master of Experimental Technique and Quantitative Research. Physics in Perspective. 6:2:197-223. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
• Levelt-Sengers, J.M.H., 2002. How fluids unmix : discoveries by the School of Van der Waals and Kamerlingh Onnes. Amsterdam, NL: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. ISBN 90-6984-357-9.
• Kamerlingh Onnes, Heike, Kōstas Gavroglou ed., and Yorgos Goudaroulis ed. 1991. Through measurement to knowledge : the selected papers of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853-1926). Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 0-7923-0825-5.
• International Institute of Refrigeration (First International Commission). 1936. Rapports et communications issus du Laboratoire Kamerlingh Onnes. Amsterdam, NL: International Congress of Refrigeration.

External links

• Scientists of the Dutch School Kamerlingh Onnes, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
• 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. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
• Nobel Prize, Physics 1913—official site. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
• 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. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
• About Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Nobel-winners.com. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
• Eric W. Weisstein , Kamerlingh-Onnes, Heike (1853-1926). Retrieved December 9, 2007.

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