KAPITSA 146 



installation for creating very powerful magnetic fields. He ob- 

 served the splitting of spectral lines in fields up to 320 kilo- 

 gauss, discovered linear increase of electrical resistance of 

 metals with the field, and studied magnetostriction of diamag- 

 netic bodies in these fields. Kapitsa developed a large capacity 

 hydrogen liquifier of helium by using the adiabatic principle. He 

 proposed a new method of liquifying air in a low pressure cycle 

 and for using a turbine engine driven by compressed gas. Using 

 a turbine engine driven by compressed gas to liquify air, Ka- 

 pitsa built an installation (1939) for obtaining large quantities of 

 liquid oxygen by way of fractionation. He is the author of the 

 treatise on ''Turbine Engine Driven by Compressed Gas for Ob- 

 taining Low Temperatures and Its Application in Liquification 

 of Air" (1939; Stalin Prize 1941). He conducted investigations 

 on the properties of liquid helium H and discovered (1938) the 

 phenomenon of super fluidity. The results of these investi- 

 gations are in "Heat Transfer and Super Fluidity of Helium 11" 

 (1941) and "Investigating the Mechanism of Heat Transfer in 

 Helium II" (1941; Stalin Prize 1943). In connection with the 

 study on the operation of a fractionating column, Kapitsa con- 

 ducted investigations on the wave heat processes in moving thin 

 layers of liquid. Later development of this work led to the es- 

 tablishment of a quantitative theory on interaction of marine 

 waves with the wind. Kapitsa developed a hydro -dynamic theory 

 of lubricating bearings. In 1951 he published studies on the 

 movement of a pendulum with a vibrating suspension device 

 and proposed a hypothesis on the nature of ball lightning (1955). 

 In 1960 Kapitsa was awarded the Lomonosov Gold Medal for 

 his work in low temperature physics. 



As of 1961, Kapitsa was a Member of the Presidium of the 

 USSR Academy of Sciences. 



In June 1958, he visited the United States to attend the 

 Gordon Research Conference on Polymer Research at New 

 London, New Hampshire. He has also attended the Pugwash 

 Conferences. 

 Biography: 



Academician Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa. Vestnik Akad. 

 Nauk S.S.S.R., 1939, #2-3, 193. 



Academician Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa (On the 60th Anni- 

 versary since the date of birth). Zhur. Eksptl. i Teoret. 

 Fiz., 1954, 27, #3. 



E. V. Shpol'skii . Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa (On the 60th 

 Anniversary since the date of birth). Uspekhi Fiz. Nauk, 

 1954, 54, #4. 



