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 s…
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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "The vacuum-insulated, silver-plated glass Dewar invented". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=6370, accessed 23 November 2024.]
