Leiden University at the university. The learning and reputation of Jacobus Gronovius, Herman Boerhaave, Tiberius Hemsterhuis and David Ruhnken, among others, enabled Leiden to maintain its reputation for excellence down to the end of the 18th century. At the end of the nineteenth century, Leiden University again became one of Europe's leading universities. At the world’s first university low-temperature laboratory, professor Heike Kamerlingh Onnes achieved temperatures of only one degree above absolute zero of −273 degrees Celsius. In 1908 he was also the first to succeed in liquifying helium and can be credited with the discovery of the superconductivity in metals. The
Liquefaction of gases textiles and manufacture of carbon tetrachloride, glycol and numerous other organic compounds as well as phosgene gas. Liquefaction of helium (He) with the precooled Hampson–Linde cycle led to a Nobel Prize for Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in 1913. At ambient pressure the boiling point of liquefied helium is . Below 2.17 K liquid He becomes a superfluid (Nobel Prize 1978, Pyotr Kapitsa) and shows characteristic properties such as heat conduction through second sound, zero viscosity and the fountain effect among others. The liquefaction of gases is a complicated process that uses various compressions and expansions to achieve high pressures and very