Thanks to the invention of a thermos flask, people do not have to warm their beverages as the flask is made to keep them hot or cold for longer duration by maintaining their temperature. Sir James Dewar, a scientist at Oxford University, invented the “vacuum flask” in 1892 in the course of his cryogenic research; he had been interested in liquid gases for over 10 years, first demonstrating the research of others (performing the first public demonstration in Britain of the liquefaction of oxygen) and then beginning his own investigations. Forcing gases to the extremely low temperatures at which they become liquid was a very expensive process, so it was important to keep them liquid long enough to investigate their properties. This is according to The Royal Institution. Dewar had developed a vacuum insulated goblet in 1872 in collaboration with Peter Tait at Edinburgh in order to keep substances warm. 20 years later he took a similar idea to create a vacuum jacketed flask. The flask, with its narrower neck, was designed especially to keep substances very cool. This initial design was later improved by narrowing the neck even further and putting a silvered coating on the outside to minimise heat loss. The flask was exhibited at the Ri for the first time on Christmas Day 1892. Dewar went on to become the first person to create liquid hydrogen in 1898, and while he was nominated several times for a Nobel Prize for his low temperature research, he never won. Ironically, after falling out with Alfred Nobel over the patent for cordite, Dewar never patented his invention of the flask. It was patented and renamed for industrial use in 1904 by the Thermos company — set up by two German glass blowers who recognised its potential to keep liquids warm as well as cool. According to Kitchen Kapers, a retailer, the thermos flask was, however, not manufactured for commercial use until 1904, when two German glass blowers formed Thermos GmbH. They held a contest to name the “vacuum flask” and a resident of Munich submitted “Thermos”, which came from the Greek word “Therme” meaning “hot”. The uses of Thermos began to spread, emerging as a must-have adventure gear for those attempting to brave nature’s wild extremes, like the Polar Regions. When Lieutenant Robert E. Peary ventured to the geographical North Pole, his trusty Thermos kept his nourishment warm. One even accompanied Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer Sir E.H. Shackleton to the South Pole. Thermos also went on more extreme missions; during the Apollo 12 moon landing in 1969, a sealed Thermos container was specially made to hold moon samples. These missions and expeditions proved the worth of Thermos to withstand extreme temperatures and help keep its contents the way they should be. Thermos has since kept food warm or cold, overtime shaping lives over the century and still continues to do so today. At key moments, these flasks even made history. editor@newtimesrwanda.com
