Abstract
Helium “has always been a most remarkable and entertaining substance. Consider the manner of its discovery. Most of the rare elements have been found by painstaking search and careful chemical isolation, but helium was discovered almost by accident, not on the earth but in the sun! In fact, after the first discovery of helium in the solar atmosphere, nearly thirty years were to elapse before it was found to be present on the earth”.1 There was an immediate race to separate the gas in pure form in quantity and to try to liquefy it.2 Thirteen years of unsuccessful attempts (Olszewski in 1896, De war in 1901, Travers in 1903 and Olszewski again in 1905) were to elapse before it was liquefied by Kamerlingh Onnes3 on 10th July 1908.4
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Notes
J.F.Allen, 1952, (p. 66).
See H. Kamerlingh Onnes, 1908, (esp. p. 18), where the first liquefaction of helium is described with great precision, in full detail.
H. Kamerlingh Onnes, 1911a, (see p. 4).
H. Kamerlingh Onnes, 1913e, (p. 327).
H. Kamerlingh Onnes, 1913d, (p. 55).
H. B. G. Casimir, 1973, (p. 493).
H. B. G. Casimir, 1977, (p. 174).
R. B. Hallock, 1982, (p. 202).
H. Kamerlingh Onnes, 1922, (p. 27).
K.Mendelssohn, 1977, (p. 251).
A. Th. van Urk, W. H. Keesom, H. Kamerlingh Onnes, 1925; J. I. Dana, H. Kamerlingh Onnes, 1926a; L. I. Dana, H. Kamerlingh Onnes, 1926b (abridged form in 1925).
L. I. Dana, H. Kamerlingh Onnes, 1926a, (p. 31, fn.1). The authors continue: “The change of density of the liquid also indicates something of the same kind”. See also R. J. Donelly and A.W.Francis, 1985.
G. E. Mac Wood, 1938 a; G. E. Mac Wood, 1938b; W. H. Keesom, J. E. MacWood, 1938.
H. B. G. Casimir, 1973, (p. 494).
J. C. McLennan, H. D. Smith, J. O. Wilhelm, 1932, (p. 165).
W. H. Keesom, A. P. Keesom, 1932, (p. 19).
W. H. Keesom, A. P. Keesom, 1935.
W. H. Keesom, A. P. Keesom, 1936, (p. 360).
J. F. Allen, R. Peirls, M. Zaki Uddin, 1937.
C T.Lane, 1962, (p. 33).
J.F.Allen, 1952, (p. 78).
K. Mendelssohn, 1972, (p. 430); see also his ref. 21 and 22.
F.E.Simon, 1952, (p. 1).
See H. Kamerlingh Onnes, 1911a and 1913e and text to footnote 9.
See M. Planck, 1911a.
F. E. Simon, 1927, (p. 808). In 1934 he pointed out that the high zero-point energy of helium was responsible for keeping the substance, under saturation pressure, in the liquid phase down to absolute zero, (see F. E. Simon, 1934).
The first hint of such an idea is found in W. H. Keesom and M. Wolfke, 1927, (p. 22).
See W. H. Keesom, 1932, (p. 51).
K. Clusius, paper read in Breslau, 1933, unpublished.
F. London, 1936, (p. 580). “It is perhaps characteristic of the trend of thought at the time that F., London avoided the term liquid’ in the title of his paper, referring to ‘condensed’ helium.” [K. Mendelssohn, 1956, (p. 386).]
F. London, 1936, (p. 581).
Ibid., (pp. 582-583).
F. London, 1938a, (p. 643).
F.London, 1939, (p. 58).
See H. London, 1960, (p. 39).
W. H. Keesom, K. W. Taconis, 1938a.
H.London, 1960, (p. 39).
A. Einstein, 1925. Uhlenbeck, in his doctoral thesis, had called Einstein’s result into doubt and there the matter rested until F. London’s letter to Nature and Uhlenbeck and Kahn’s paper in Physica in which Uhlenbeck had withdrawn his former objection. [See G. E. Uhlenbeck, 1927; F. London, 1928a]. “If the λ-phenomenon of liquid helium had been discovered between 1925 and 1927, one would perhaps have tried at once to interpret it as the condensation predicted by Einstein” [F. London, 1939, (p. 59)].
F. London, 1938b, (p. 951).
See footnote 33.
F. London, 1938a, (p. 644).
L. Tisza, 1949, (p. 2).
F. London, 1938b and 1939.
F. London, 1947, (p. 8).
J. F. Allen, 1952, (p. 90).
P.L. Kapitza, 1941a, (p. 581).
P. L. Kapitza, 1 940, (p. 24).
P.L. Kapitza, 1941b, (p. 638).
J. Frenkel, 1946, (esp. p. 308).
“This name was suggested by I. E. Tamm”. [L. D. Landau, 1941, (fn. in p. 200).
V. L. Ginzburg, 1943, (p. 305).
V. Peshkov, 1944; V. Peshkov, 1946.
F. London, 1947, (p. 13).
L. Tisza, 1949, (p. 2).
Landau was at this time unaware of Tisza’s prediction of temperature waves. [See footnote 91.
According to Peshkov, 1946, (p. 167). “An attempt to detect the second sound by the beats in standing waves radiated by oscillating piezoquartz was undertaken in the Institute for Physical Problems by Shalnikov and Sokolov before the war, but without success”.
S.G. Brush, 1983, (p. 184).
E.Lifshitz, 1944, (p. 241).
V. Peshkov, 1944. It is interesting to note that in 1940 Ganz sent a heat pulse down a long capillary of He II and estimated its velocity to be of the order of 100 m/sec. “Although it was not then recognized as such, this must be considered to be the first observation of a travelling temperature wave in helium II”. [J. F. Allen, 1952, (p. 90)].
N. Bogoliubov, 1947, (p. 247).
L. Tisza, 1949, (pp. 2–3).
J.F. Allen, 1952, (p. 92).
F. London, 1949b, (p. 696).
N. Bogoliubov, 1947, (p. 247).
S. G. Brush, 1983, (p. 189).
F. London, 1951, (pp. 2–3).
R. Feynman, 1955, (p. 25).
R. Feynman, 1953a, (p. 1116). See also R. Feynman, 1953b.
R. Feynman, 1953c.
R. Feynman, 1954.
R. Feynman, M. Cohen, 1956.
L. Onsager, Remark at a Low Temperature Physics Conference at Shelter Island in 1948, Published in Nuovo Cimento, supplement, 6, 1949, (p. 249).
R. Feynman, 1955, (p. 45).
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Gavroglu, K., Goudaroulis, Y. (1989). Superfluidity: old concepts in search of new contexts. In: Methodological Aspects of the Development of Low Temperature Physics 1881–1956. Science and Philosophy, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2556-4_4
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