A flask of Dewar's and a Dewar flask are two different things, the differences come down to construction and temperature. The career of Sir James Dewar should warm you like no Scotch could when you think about the temperatures he worked with. In 1891 he liquefied oxygen, that requires a temperature of -182.9 °C (-297.2 °F). In 1897 he liquefied fluorine, -188.12 °C (-306.62 °F), the next year it was hydrogen, a big step to -252.87 °C (-423.17 °F), and then he froze that, -259.14 °C (-434.45 °F) - only 14 Celsius degrees above absolute zero. We're talking cold, here. He created the Dewar flask to hold liquid gasses, a flask inside a flask with a vacuum between them to eliminate heat transfer by conduction between the two, he coated the glass with silver to reflect heat, eliminating transfer of heat by radiation. Two German glass blowers commercialized a process to make small flasks along these lines, and sponsored a contest to choose a name: the Thermos bottle.
Thermos bottles may not be rocket science, but they help. Wernher von Braun's A4 or V2 rockets used liquid oxygen (and ethanol), von Braun arrived in the US on this date. The prophet Muhammad finished a move on this day as well, and the Great Schism in the Roman Catholic Church started on this day, largely as an outgrowth of moving the papacy around.
As far as I can tell there are no actual holidays anywhere on the planet today. The holiday listed is no longer celebrated, at least officially. The saint whose day it is probably didn't exist, but he is/was known as the patron of hunters, so I chose hunting quotes. Eustace was one of the "Fourteen Helpers," something like the second team, most of whom are dubious historically and whose celebrations were ended in 1969. Except Saint Christopher, he probably didn't exist either but there was such a furor when he was removed from the calendar that he was approved as a local saint in Italy.
622 - After Muhammad fled from Mecca on the Hegira on 16 July 622 for the more-hospitable Yethrib, that oasis town changed its name to Medinat al-Nabi, The City of the Prophet. It was later truncated to Medina, The City.
1258 - Salisbury Cathedral was consecrated. The first cathedral, in 1070, collapsed in a storm days after it was dedicated. In 1220 conflict between the church and military caused the church to seek a new site. It took over 38 years to build, and it was yet another century before the current spire, 404 feet tall, was complete.
1378 - The Great Schism in the Catholic Church began with the installation of a rival pope in France. For 68 years, the pope had been in Avignon, France giving the French king and cardinals great influence, but Gregory XI had moved the papal offices back to Rome in 1377. On his death, Urban VI was created pope at Rome but soon alienated the French, who created Clement VII at Avignon. It got worse, in 1409 a third pope was created at Pisa in a failed attempt to restore the breach.
1664 - Maryland passes the first anti-amalgamation law, forbidding intermarriage of English women and black men. White women who married slaves would become slaves for the rest of the husbands' lifetimes, children would be "slaves as their fathers were."
1945 - The first seven German rocket sciences admitted to the US under "Operation Paperclip" arrived at Fort Strong, including Wernher von Braun. The program was created to bring various specialists and their knowledge out of Nazi Germany to work with the US defense and intelligence agencies, screening out active Nazis. Some say that condition was not satisfied.
1988 - Prodigy, a joint venture of IBM and Sears, opened for business in five California cities, Atlanta, and Hartford. Created as a "videotext" service, its coarse graphics, slow performance, and open censorship of messages were a major step back for the online service business, but it was the first large-scale attempt at e-commerce.
St Eustace's Day, Observed by desperate calendar creators - Legend holds that Placidius was a Roman general under Emperor Trajan and a passionate hunter. While lost in the woods along the Tiber a golden stag confronted him, with silver antlers with a glowing crucifix between the horns, warning him to convert to Christianity. He did, changing his name to Eustachius. He refused to make sacrifice to a Roman god and was bound inside a bull and roasted. Patron of hunters, at least until his cult was suppressed by the Holy See in 1969.
1842
- Sir James Dewar, Scottish chemist and physicist - Born at Kincardine-on-Forth,
Scotland. Studied at the University of Edinburgh (about 15 miles east
of Kincardine and across the Firth of Forth), professor or experimental
natural philosophy at Cambridge in 1875, in 1877 he was named professor
of chemistry at the Royal Institution where he was appointed director
of the Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory. He discovered the ring structure
of benzene in 1867, with Frederick Abel invented cordite, the first smokeless
gunpowder, in 1889, and soon after turned his attention to properties
of matter at low-temperature. Very low temperature. In 1891 he developed
a process to produce liquid oxygen in industrial quantities, in 1892 he
developed the Dewar flask to hold it, a double walled vessel with vacuum
between the shells. By 1897 he had liquefied fluorine, hydrogen followed
in 1898, in 1899 he froze hydrogen. He was knighted in 1904, the same
year the Dewar flask was adopted for commercial use in Germany. He developed
a process for producing high vacuums needed for atomic physics experiments
using supercold charcoal. Sir James died at London on 27 March 1923.
People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.
- Prince Otto von Bismarck
Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify
the hunter.
- African proverb
Before beginning a Hunt, it is wise to ask someone what you are looking
for before you begin looking for it.
- Alan Alexander Milne
Khrushchev reminds me of the tiger hunter who has picked a place on the
wall to hang the tiger's skin long before he has caught the tiger. This
tiger has other ideas.
- John Fitzgerald Kennedy
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