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DEWAR, SIR JAMES (1842- )

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 137 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DEWAR, See also:SIR See also:JAMES (1842- ) , See also:British chemist and physicist, was See also:born at Kincardine-on-Forth, See also:Scotland, on the loth of See also:September 1842. He was educated at See also:Dollar See also:Academy and See also:Edinburgh University, being at the latter first a See also:pupil, and afterwards the assistant, of See also:Lord See also:Playfair, then See also:professor of See also:chemistry; he also studied under See also:Kekule at See also:Ghent. In 1875 he was elected Jacksonian professor of natural experimental See also:philosophy at See also:Cambridge, becoming a See also:fellow of Peterhouse, and in 1877 he succeeded Dr J. H. See also:Gladstone as Fullerian professor of chemistry in the Royal Institution, See also:London. He was See also:president of the Chemical Society in 1897, and of the British Association in 1902, served on the See also:Balfour See also:Commission on London See also:Water See also:Supply (1893-1894), and as a member of the See also:Committee on See also:Explosives (1888-1891) invented See also:cordite jointly with Sir See also:Frederick See also:Abel. His scientific See also:work covers a wide See also:field. Of his earlier papers, some See also:deal with questions of organic chemistry, others with See also:Graham's hydrogenium and its See also:physical constants, others with high temperatures, e.g. the temperature of the See also:sun and of the electric spark, others again with electro-See also:photometry and the chemistry of the electric arc. With Professor J. G. M'Kendrick, of See also:Glasgow, he investigated the physiological See also:action of See also:light, and examined the changes which take See also:place in the See also:electrical See also:condition of the retina under its See also:influence. With Professor G.

D. Liveing, one of his colleagues at Cambridge, he began in 1878 a See also:

long See also:series of spectroscopic observations, the later of which were devoted to the spectroscopic examination of various gaseous constituents separated from atmospheric See also:air by the aid of See also:low temperatures; and he was joined by Professor J. A. See also:Fleming, of University See also:College, London, in the investigation of the electrical behaviour of substances cooled to very low temperatures. His name is most widely known in connexion with his work on the liquefaction of the so-called permanent gases and his researches at temperatures approaching the zero of See also:absolute temperature. His See also:interest in this See also:branch of inquiry See also:dates back at least as far as 1874, when he discussed the " Latent See also:Heat of Liquid Gases " before the British Association. In 1878he devoted a See also:Friday evening lecture at the Royal Institution to the then See also:recent work of L. P. Cailletet and R. P. Pictet, and exhibited for the first See also:time in See also:Great See also:Britain the working of the Cailletet apparatus. Six years later, in the same place, he described the researches of Z.

F. Wroblewski and K. S. Olszewski, and illustrated for the first time in public the liquefaction of See also:

oxygen and air, by means of apparatus specially designed for See also:optical See also:projection so that the actions taking place might be visible to the See also:audience. Soon afterwards he constructed a See also:machine from which the liquefied See also:gas could be See also:drawn off through a See also:valve for use as a cooling See also:agent, and he showed its employment for this purpose in connexion with some researches on meteorites ; about the same time he also obtained oxygen in the solid See also:state. By.' 891 he had designed and erected at the Royal Institution an apparatus which yielded liquid oxygen by the See also:pint, and towards the end of that See also:year he showed that both liquid oxygen and liquid See also:ozone are strongly attracted by a magnet. About 1892 the See also:idea occurred to him of using vacuum-jacketed vessels for the storage of liquid gases, and so efficient did this See also:device prove in preventing the influx of See also:external heat that it is found possible not only to preserve the liquids for comparatively long periods, but also to keep them so See also:free from ebullition that examination of their optical properties becomes possible. He next experimented with a high-pressure See also:hydrogen See also:jet by which low temperatures were realized through the See also:Thomson-See also:joule effect, and the successful results thus obtained led him to build at the Royal Institution the large See also:refrigerating machine by which in 1898 hydrogen was for the first time collected in the liquid state, its solidification following in 1899. Later he investigated the gas-absorbing See also:powers of See also:charcoal when cooled to low temperatures, and applied them to the See also:production of high vacua and to gas See also:analysis (see LIQUID GASES). The Royal Society in 1894 bestowed the See also:Rumford See also:medal upon him for his work in the production of low temperatures, and in 1899 he became the first recipient of the Hodgkins See also:gold medal of the Smithsonian Institution, See also:Washington, for his contributions to our knowledge of the nature and properties of atmospheric air. In 1904 he was the first British subject to receive the See also:Lavoisier medal of the See also:French Academy of Sciences, and in 1906 he was the first to be awarded the See also:Matteucci medal of the See also:Italian Society of Sciences. He was knighted in 1904, and in 1908 he was awarded the See also:Albert medal of the Society of Arts.

End of Article: DEWAR, SIR JAMES (1842- )

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