354 Prof. H. E. Armstrong on Low -Temperature, Research 



HODGKINS TRUST. 



Essay by Professor Henry E. Armstrong. 



Low-Temperature Research at the Royal Institution, 1 900-1 907. 



In the account given, in 1901, by Miss Agnes Gierke, of Low- 

 Temperature Research at the Royal Institution during the years 

 1893-1900,* the achievements chronicled included the solidification of 

 oxygen, the liquefaction of fluorine and the Hquefaction and solidi- 

 fication of hydrogen ; the only gas remaining uncoerced was helium. 

 During the period 1900-1907, of which the present account is 

 in a measure a record, siege has constantly been laid to the 

 formidable entrenchments behind which this gas was established ; 

 the few who have been privileged to follow the work are aware that 

 operations have been carried on with all the ingenuity and tenacity 

 of purpose which have characterised previous attacks on the gaseous 

 state made in the laboratory of the Institution. But the difficulties 

 met with have been many and great ; moreover, progress has been 

 much hampered by Sir James Dewar's continued ill-health and 

 — the confession is a sad one to make — of late especially by lack of 

 funds. Another circumstance has delayed the prosecution of the 

 attempt to degrade helium from its virtuous position as gas : genius 

 has been defined as the capacity for taking pains, and doubtless one 

 of the quahties of genius is perseverance in pursuit of an object, 

 when intuition does not carry it straight to the mark ; a more 

 distinguishing feature is the artistic longing for novelty of effect and 

 its manifestation in new works : it is a striking fact that elsewhere 

 liquefied gases have been utilised practically only as mere cooling 

 agents ; at the Royal Institution an extraordinary variety of new 

 applications have been made of the intense frigorific effects there 

 available : the aim constantly in view has been not merely to 

 improve the appliances but to develop the use of liquefied gases to 

 the solution of the manifold problems involved in the study of the 

 properties of matter at excessively low temperatures. The period 

 under review has been almost more productive than any previous 

 period from this point of view, one contribution of superlative 

 importance having been made which has both revolutionised practice 

 in the region of low vacua and extended to an altogether remarkable 

 extent our power of deaUng with gases and discriminating l^etween 



* A summary of the work carried on with the aid of the Hodgkins Trust 

 is, by the authority of the Managers, incorporated in the Proceedings of the 

 Koyal Institution every seven years. 



