History of the Thermos
I love my Thermos. It is my trusty companion during chilly mountain hikes and daggy family picnics. It’s not very cool, but it’s so darn useful!
The story I’m illustrating is the thrilling History of the Thermos. It begins at Oxford University, with a scientist who was trying to keep his chemicals chilly. His name was James Dewar and in 1892, he realised that creating a vacuum was the key to icy cold liquid hydrogen. The cryogenics crowd were well impressed.
The Thermos company was founded a few years later by two German glassblowers. Seeing the potential for a travelling cuppa, they established the iconic company in 1904.
Part One. A true-ish story about the Thermos's expedition to Antarctica.
Having already done a spot of exploring in the North, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was pretty keen to lead the first expedition to reach the South Pole. Trekking to Antarctica requires serious planning, so the team packed 4 sledges, 52 dogs, 42,000 biscuits and 100kg of chocolate. But something was missing....ah, yes, the Thermos! So they threw in a bunch of flasks and off they went.
What can I say, the Thermos was a big hit. Roald wrote in his diary that it was "...a splendid invention. We fill it with boiling chocolate each morning and drink it piping hot at noon."
Part Two. A true-ish story about the Thermos’s flight with the Wright Brothers.
Orville and Wilbur were brothers – both mechanically minded and up for a challenge. After establishing a printing press and a weekly newspaper, they decided that a bicycle shop might be more fun. The brothers spent their days tinkered around with bike repairs and chatting to fellow cyclists. It was during these tête-à-têtes that they resolved to design a machine that flies. Yes indeedy! If they could build a bike, then surely they could build the world’s first aero-craft.
And right they were. Cheered on by the cycling fraternity, the boys made aviation history in 1903.
But what, pray tell, was in their carry-on tool kit during these early flights? That’s right friends, the trusty Thermos! A significant, yet eternally overlooked historical fact.
Part Three. A true-ish story about the Thermos’s expedition into Outer Space.
Before we get to the good bit, we need to go back to first principles.
The magic of the flask is its ability to keep fluids hot or cold. It does this by having two walls with a vacuum gap in-between. Removing the air in that little gap, prevents the heat from transferring.
You’re thinking, ‘okay, Kïa, this isn’t rocket science. Get on with the story’. But that is precisely my point. Thermos technology is Rocket Science. How unexpectedly brilliant is that?!
Let me explain. In order to get a spacecraft where it needs to go, it requires an awful lot of rocket fuel and rather large fuel tanks. So, during the Space Race of the 1960s, Rocket Scientists at NASA starting designing their tanks as really, really big Thermos flasks. Only instead of hot chocolate, they held liquid gas. I’m not making this up!
The tanks are called Dewar flasks, after our hero and inventor, Sir James Dewar.
And you know what all this means, don’t you? The secret to exploring the biggest vacuum in our universe (space) was solved by designing mini vacuums, in the form of the humble Thermos flask. Great huh?
