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Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1913: The Highest Honor for the Lowest Temperatures

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I dedicate my paper to my mother, whose unconditional love, tireless devotion, and priceless and dear companionship were and forever will be the greatest blessings in my life.

Abstract

One century ago this year the Dutch experimental physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853–1926) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in low-temperature physics, in particular for his production of liquid helium. I trace the route to his Nobel Prize within the context of his and his colleagues’ research in his laboratory at the University of Leiden, and in light of his nominators and the nominations he received in the five years 1909–1913.

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Notes

  1. After Kamerlingh Onnes’s death, his wife donated his papers to the University of Leiden, a large part of which are deposited in the Museum Boerhaave. His correspondence includes nine exchanges with Cailletet, one with Pictet, thirty-two with Dewar, four with Olszewski, and some with Emile Hilaire Amagat (1841–1915), who worked on measuring the compressibility of several gases and determining their isotherms over a wide range of pressures and temperatures.

  2. In 1890 van der Waals, by relating his eponymous equation of state to the second law of thermodynamics in the form given by J. Willard Gibbs (1839–1903), found a graphical representation of the result in the form of a surface, which he called the Ψ surface.

  3. Between July 1910 and March 1925 Mathias published, jointly with Kamerlingh Onnes and Claude A. Crommelin (1878–1965), seven articles on the possible application of his law of rectilinear diameter to various gases; see “Published Works” (ref. 26), pp. 531-534.

  4. Paragraph 4 of the Statutes states that “should … the death of the individual in question have occurred subsequent to a recommendation having been made in due course for his work to receive a prize, such prize may be awarded”; see Crawford, Beginnings (ref. 27), p. 223. The Physics Committee had withdrawn its recommendation of Ångström fearing that the Academy would reject it.

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  17. Ibid., pp. 5-19.

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  22. Ibid., p. 16.

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  24. Bruyn Ouboter, “cryogenic achievements” (ref. 19), p. c.

  25. H. Kamerlingh Onnes, “The liquefaction of helium,” Comm. Phys. Lab. Leiden, No. 108 (1908), 3-23 (plus 3 plates); reprinted in Gavroglu and Goudaroulis, Through Measurement to Knowledge (ref. 3), pp. 164-174.

  26. “Published Works of H. Kamerlingh Onnes,” in Gavroglu and Goudaroulis, Through Measurement to Knowledge (ref. 3), pp. 521-539, especially pp. 521-526.

  27. Elisabeth Crawford, The Beginnings of the Nobel Institution: The Sciences Prizes, 1901–1915 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press and Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, 1984), p. 151.

  28. Ibid., p. 95.

  29. Robert Marc Friedman, “Nobel Physics Prize in perspective,” Nature 292 (1981), 793-798, on 793; idem, The Politics of Excellence: Behind the Nobel Prize in Science (New York: Times Books, Henry Holt and Company, 2001, Chapter One, pp. 13-25.

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  41. François Le Chatelier, Henry Le Chatelier: Un grand savant d’hier, Un précurseur: Sa vie, Son œuvre Son temps (Paris: S. Le Chatelier–Revue de Métallurgie, 1968), pp. 47-114.

  42. Cinquantenaire Scientifique de M. Henry Le Chatelier (Paris: F. Dutal, 1922), p. 47.

  43. H. Le Chatelier et O. Boudouard, Mesure des Températures Élevées (Paris: Georges Carré et C. Naud, 1900).

  44. Helden, “coldest spot” (ref. 20), p. 7.

  45. Russell McCormmach, “Lorentz, Hendrik Antoon,” in Gillispie, DSB (ref. 2). Vol. VIII (1973), pp. 487-500, on p. 488.

  46. Cohen, “Kamerlingh Onnes Memorial Lecture” (ref. 2), p. 1208; 106.

  47. Quoted in H.A. Lorentz, “Het Proefschrift van Prof. Kamerlingh Onnes [1926],” in Collected Papers. Vol. IX (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1939), pp. 291-307, on p. 292; translated in Kipnis, Yvelov, and Rowlinson, Van der Waals (ref. 6), p. 152.

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  49. Quoted in Helden, coldest spot (ref. 20), p. 9.

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  56. Nobel Foundation, Nobel Lectures. Physics 1901–1921 (ref. 32), p. 191.

  57. Quoted in Kipnis, Yavelov, and Rowlinson, Van der Waals (ref. 6), p. 116.

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  62. Quoted in Gavroglu and Goudaroulis, Through Measurement to Knowledge (ref. 3), pp. xxxix-xl.

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  64. Crawford, Beginnings (ref. 27), p. 222.

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  67. Ibid., pp. 291-296.

  68. H. Kamerlingh Onnes, “Contributions to the knowledge of van der Waals’ Ψ-surface. I. Graphical treatment of the transverse-plait,” Proc. K. Akad. Weten. Ams. Sec. Sci. 3 (1900), 275-288 (with 2 plates); H. Kamerlingh Onnes and M. Reinganum, idem. “II. The part of the transverse plait in the neighborhood of the plaitpoint in Kuenen’s experiments on retrograde condensation,” ibid. 3 (1900-1901), 289-298.

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  76. See, for example, Jean Becquerel et H. Kamerlingh Onnes, “Sur les spectres d’absorption des cristaux des terres rares et leurs modifications dans un champ magnétique aux températures de liquefaction et de solidification de l’hydrogène,” Comptes rendus 146 (1908), 625-628, and Henri Becquerel, Jean Becquerel, and Heike Kamelringh Onnes, “Phosphorescence des sels d’uranyle aux très basses tempèratures,” Annales de Chimie et de Physique 20 (1910), 145-166.

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  78. Förslag (ref. 37), 1910.

  79. Nobel Foundation, Nobel Lectures. Physics 1901–1921 (ref. 32), p. 249.

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  86. Madame P. Curie and H. Kamerlingh Onnes, “The radiation of radium at the temperature of liquid hydrogen,” Proc. K. Akad. Weten. Ams. Sec. Sci. 15 (Part 2) (1913), 1430-1441.

  87. See, for example, H. Kamerlingh Onnes and Albert Perrier, “Researches on the magnetization of liquid and solid oxygen,” Proc. K. Akad. Weten. Ams. Sec. Sci. 12 (1910), 799-835 (with 1 plate).

  88. H. Kamerlingh Onnes, “Further Experiments with Liquid Helium. E. A helium-cryostat. Remarks on the preceding communications,” Proc. K. Akad. Weten. Ams. Sec. Sci. 14 (Part 1) (1911), 204-210.

  89. See, for example, H. Kamerlingh Onnes and C.A. Crommelin, “Isotherms of monoatomic gases and of their binary mixtures. VII. Isotherms of argon between +20° C and −150° C.,” Proc. K. Akad. Weten. Ams. Sec. Sci. 13 (1911), 614-625 (with 2 plates).

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  91. See, for example, H. Kamerlingh Onnes, “Further Experiments with Liquid Helium. D. On the Change of the Electrical Resistance of Pure Metals at very low temperatures, etc. V. The Disappearance of the resistance of mercury,” Proc. K. Akad. Weten. Ams. Sec. Sci. 14 (Part 1) (1911), 113-115. For secondary literature, see (ref. 1).

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  108. Quoted in Bruno Carazza and Helge Kragh, “Augusto Righi’s magnetic rays: A failed research program in early 20th-century physics,” Hist. Stud. Phys. Biol. Sci. 21 (1) (1990), 1-28, on 21-22.

  109. Kommittéutlåtande (ref. 82), 1912.

  110. Maria Asp Dahlbäk, Archivist, Center for History of Science, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, personal communication (November 23, 2012).

  111. Friedman, Politics of Excellence (ref. 29), p. 57.

  112. Nobel Foundation, Nobel Lectures. Physics 1901–1921 (ref. 32), p. 291.

  113. See, for example, W.J. de Haas, “Isotherms of diatomic gases and of their binary mixtures. X. Control measurements with volumenometer of the compressibility of hydrogen at 20° C.,” Proc. K. Akad. Weten. Ams. Sec. Sci. 15 (Part 1) (1912), 295-299; W.H. Keesom, “On the Deduction of the Equation of State from Boltzmann’s Entropy Principle,” ibid., 240-256.

  114. Olof Beckman, personal communication (March 15, 2004).

  115. See, for example, H. Kamerlingh Onnes and Bengt Beckman, “On the Hall effect and the change in the resistance in a magnetic field at low temperatures, etc.,” Proc. K. Akad. Weten. Ams. Sec. Sci. 15 (Part 1) (1912), 307-318; H. Kamerlingh Onnes and Mrs. Anna Beckman,”On piezo-electric and pyro-electric properties of quartz at low temperatures down to that of liquid hydrogen,” ibid. 15 (Part 2) (1913), 1380-1383.

  116. Gavroglu and Goudarulis, “Remarkable Work,” (ref. 3), pp. lxxviii-lxxix.

  117. Förslag (ref. 37), 1913.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Karl Grandin and Maria Asp, Center for History of Science, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, for their collaboration in preparing my paper, and for permission to reproduce some of the figures in it. I also thank the staff of the Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, American Institute of Physics, and of the Museum Boerhaave for supplying various pictures for my paper, and for permission to reproduce them. I also am grateful to several collegues in foreign countries who have provided information on many of the scientists I mention in my paper. Finally, I thank Roger H. Stuewer for his meticulous and knowledgeable editorial work on my paper.

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    Simón Reif-Acherman

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Simón Reif-Acherman is Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia. His interests in history of science and technology include biographical studies and developments of scientific concepts and theories in physics and chemistry.

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Reif-Acherman, S. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1913: The Highest Honor for the Lowest Temperatures. Phys. Perspect. 15, 415–450 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-013-0118-0

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