Louis Paul Cailletet, the Liquefaction of Oxygen and the Emergence of an ‘In-Between Discipline’: Low-Temperature Research

In 1877 Louis Paul Cailletet in France and Raoul Pictet in Switzerland liquefied oxygen in the form of a mist. The liquefaction of the first of the so-called permanent gases heralded the birth of low-temperature research and is often described in the literature as having started a ‘race’ for attaining progressively lower temperatures. In fact, between 1877 and 1908, when helium, the last of the permanent gases, was liquefied, there were many priority disputes—something quite characteristic of the emergence of a new research field. This paper examines Cailletet’s path to the liquefaction of oxygen, as well as a debate between him and the Polish physicist Zygmunt Wróblewski over the latter’s contribution to the liquefaction of gases. © 2015, Springer International Publishing Switzerland

Louis Paul Cailletet: The liquefaction of oxygen and the emergence of low-temperature research

In 1877 Louis Paul Cailletet in France and Raoul Pictet in Switzerland liquefied oxygen in the form of a mist. The liquefaction of the first of the so-called permanent gases heralded the birth of low-temperature research and is often described in the literature as having started a 'race' for attaining progressively lower temperatures. In fact, between 1877 and 1908, when helium, the last of the permanent gases, was liquefied, there were many priority disputes- something quite characteristic of the emergence of a new research field. This paper examines Cailletet's path to the liquefaction of oxygen, as well as a debate between him and the Polish physicist Zygmunt Wróblewski over the latter's contribution to the liquefaction of gases. © 2013 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society

‘Fresher than Fresh’. Consumer Attitudes Towards the Development of the Cold Chain in Post-2WW Greece

In studying the development and role of home appliances, either from a historical or anthropological or a sociological perspective, there emerges a kind of symmetry: what they do is, in effect, what humans can do. Appliances just do it better, they do it faster, they are more thorough, they do it more safely. Electric stoves, gas ovens, vacuum cleaners, washing machines even electric irons have their ‘counterparts’ in human activities and, at times, in human skilfulness. They can, in effect, be regarded as concentrated labour. There is, however, an intriguing exception to this rule: home refrigerators and to a certain extent, air conditioning. In other words, appliances producing artificial cold do not appear to be instantiations of concentrated labour. And if one is to search any kind of symmetry analogous to the appliances mentioned above, one will have to search it not with respect to human labour and skills, but with respect to natural conditions. Refrigerators ‘(re)produce’ what happens in cold winter days or what exists in mountain tops; refrigerators are regarded as appliances which harness and control ‘something’ found in nature. And, thus, refrigerators and air conditioners, as opposed to all other home appliances, produce something for consumption. They produce cold and, hence, they regulate its consumption. Furthermore, refrigerators not only produce material forms of cold, that is ice cubes (there is no analogue for heat), but they also produce a quality that creates an added value to a vast number of products. The very possibility that foodstuff can be preserved in cold, gives to these products an extra value. To have consumer goods, whose rate of perishing can be diminished with the aid of a specific appliance, makes these goods more valuable. © 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

The international association of refrigeration through the correspondence of heike kamerlingh onnes and Charles-Edouard Guillaume, 1908-1914

In 1908 the First International Congress of Refrigeration took place in Paris, organised by a score of French industrialists and supported by some of the major railway and shipping companies. A few months later, in January 1909, the International Association of Refrigeration was founded with the aim of encouraging the general progress of the science and industries of artificial cold. The aim of this paper consists in examining the early years of the Association with a particular focus on its scientific character. The research is based on the documents published by the Association from 1908 to 1914, and on private correspondence between two of the main scientists, both Nobel Prize recipients, who played an important role in its establishment: the Swiss physicist Edouard Guillaume (1861-1938) and the Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853-1926). Both scientists had a specific vision for their own role in the Association and for the Association itself. Their correspondence reveals a great range of tensions between the various nation-state members of the Association, its various spheres of activity, but also tensions due to personal ambitions and conflicts of interest

Science and Technology in Greek Newspapers, 1900-1910. Historiographical Reflections and the Role of Journalists for the Public Images of Science and Technology

Based on our research on two Athenian daily newspapers for the first decade of the twentieth century, we present some historiographical reflections concerning the role of the daily press in the circulation of scientific knowledge, ideas and practices. From the wealth of material provided, we examine some of the ways in which scientific and technical knowledge was made available to a wider public and contributed to the creation of a general scientific literacy. Although Greece has never been in the forefront of scientific and technological research, the vast amount of newspaper articles on science and technology, but also references to science and technology in other kind of articles, show how discussions on science and technology become part of daily life in order to serve various agendas. Since newspapers address a very wide and diverse public on a daily basis they become privileged media not only for understanding the role science and technology played in the formation of modern societies, but also for examining the values and ideas attached to them and communicated to a wider public. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V