Discovery of superconductivity
APR 08, 2015
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.030938
On this day in 1911 Heike Kamerlingh Onnes dipped a wire made of solid mercury into liquid helium and lowered the temperature. At 4.2 K, the wire’s electrical resistance suddenly vanished. Onnes wrote in his lab book: “Mercury has passed into a new state, which on account of its extraordinary electrical properties may be called the superconductive state.” He had discovered superconductivity!
Date in History: 8 April 1911
© 2015 American Institute of Physics
