The vacuum-insulated, silver-plated glass Dewar invented

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.3: Scottish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), J. Derrick McClure (University of Aberdeen), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Domains

Ceramics and glass

Dates

Date of occurrence 1892

Places

Scotland (Location)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

The Scottish physicist and chemist Sir James Dewar spent much of his career researching into the possibilities of liquefying gases, which generally involved trying to create and maintain very low temperatures. Having previously experimented with cork, hay, and even crumpled newspaper as potential insulating materials, in 1892 he had the idea of using a vacuum to try to slow down the rate at which cold liquids warmed up to the external temperature. By using two containers inside one another, and creating a vacuum in the sealed space between them, he removed the air molecules that would transmit the heat from one area to the other, and thus dramatically slowed down heat transfer. His innovative vacuum flask was made of glass, and had a silver coating to decrease direct heat transfer as…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

183 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "The vacuum-insulated, silver-plated glass Dewar invented". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=6370, accessed 24 April 2024.]

Save this article