He was the first to liquefy helium, using several precooling stages and the Hampson- Linde cycle based on the Joule-Thompson effect. This way he lowered the temperature to the boiling point of helium (−269 °C, 4.2 K). By reducing the pressure of the liquid helium he achieved a temperature near 1.5 K. These were the coldest temperatures achieved on the earth at the time. The equipment employed is at the Boerhaave Museum in
Leiden. For this work, Onnes won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1913.
61400login-checkJuly 10th – Dutch scientist Kamerlingh Onnes made liquid helium (He) on this day in 1908
