Facilitating Leiden’s Cold: The International Association of Refrigeration and the Internationalisation of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes’s Cryogenic Laboratory

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The International Association of Refrigeration (Association Internationale du Froid) was founded in January 1909. Right from the start, the Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853–1926) played a major role in the new association, which brought together the science of low temperatures; the refrigeration industry; applications of cold to foodstuffs, trade, and transport; and relevant legislation. In July 1908, Kamerlingh Onnes became the first person to liquefy helium, making his Leiden cryogenic laboratory the coldest spot on earth. Because of this success, he was one of the big stars of the First International Congress of Refrigeration, held in October 1908, in Paris. As vice president of the association and chairman of the ‘first committee’, which dealt with the science of low temperatures, Kamerlingh Onnes was able to strengthen Leiden’s position as the leading international centre for cryogenic research. His presentation at the Paris congress unleashed a stream of guest researchers to Leiden, where they enjoyed Kamerlingh Onnes’s hospitality and were allowed to extend their research to much lower temperatures then could be reached in their own laboratories. The Association provided grants for young physicists to perform research ‘relevant to cold technology’ in Leiden’s cryogenic laboratory. In practice, however, the Leiden program dealt only with basic research. In 1920, in the wake of World War I, the Association was transformed into the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR). Kamerlingh Onnes, monsieur Zero Absolu, maintained his key position. By stressing that the science of refrigeration had a golden future and that superconductivity, which was demonstrated in Leiden in 1911, would come to the aid of electrical engineers, Kamerlingh Onnes was able to secure the funding of his Leiden laboratory by the IIR.