Superconductivity Demo - Circuit Diagram

Thanks to http://flanture.blogspot.com/2007/08/howto-flash-content-on-bloggers-blog.html I could post my weird flash animation of the circuit used by Kamerling onnes to demonstrate superconductivity. (Embedding flash in blogger shouldn't be so hard, in fact!)

Observe that initially the switch S1 is closed, while the switch S2 is open. So, no current flows through the mercury.

Now, when the switch S2 is closed, and after a while, switch S1 is open. The currrent that was flowing through the switch S2 keeps on flowing. They call it persistent current. This was achieved when cool Mr. Kamerling cooled the mercury down to 4K. Eventually, Leyden was remarked as 'the coldest spot on the Earth', but hot research on superconductivity was going on.

And here is a vintage photograph of some greatest scientists, assembled during the Solvay congress in 1927.


The event took place in October 1927. In this fifth Solvay International Conference on Electrons and Photons, world's most notable physicists met to discuss the newly formulated quantum theory. It was here that Einstein reportedly said, referring to the Uncertainty Principle, "God does not play dice." Perhaps getting bored of this, Bohr replied, "Einstein, stop telling God what to do." Seventeen of the twenty-nine attendees were or became Nobel Prize winners! And the persevering Marie Curie won Nobel Prizes in two separate scientific disciplines.