Abstract
IT is common knowledge in scientific circles that Prof. P. Kapitza, director of the Royal Society Mond Laboratory at Cambridge, and Messel professor of the Royal Society, has been detained in Russia since last September by order of the Government of the U.S.S.R. Kapitza came to England as a member of a Russian scientific commission in 1921. He soon started to work as a research student at Cambridge under the supervision of Lord Rutherford, and after some preliminary work on radioactivity he commenced work on the production of intense magnetic fields, and in 1925 a new laboratory, financed by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, was opened for the work. By the use of a special alternator, Kapitza was able to produce fields up to 300,000 gauss, and to carry out experiments showing the existence of new phenomena in conduction and in magneto-striction. Since most of these phenomena are more pronounced at low temperatures, a hydrogen liquefaction plant was added in 1929, and in 1930 the Royal Society made a special donation of £15,000 to enable a new laboratory to be built to house the original apparatus, together with a helium liquefaction plant. It was characteristic of Kapitza that he was not satisfied to take over existing designs of helium liquefiers, but began immediately to work on the construction of a new type of liquefier which required no liquid hydrogen. This liquefier is an illustration of Kapitza's special technical gift, for it incorporates a piston type engine, which works down to the temperature of liquid helium. This liquefier, which was described in NATURE of May 12, 1934 (p. 708), was perfected last summer, and Kapitza was able to carry out preliminary experiments using strong magnetic fields combined with helium temperatures before leaving for Russia in September to-attend the Mendeleeff Congress.
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Prof. P. Kapitza and the U.S.S.R. Nature 135, 755–756 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135755a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135755a0