Autoclave Autoclave An autoclave is a pressure chamber used to carry out industrial processes requiring elevated temperature and pressure different from ambient air pressure. Autoclaves are used in medical applications to perform sterilization and in the chemical industry to cure coatings and vulcanize rubber and for hydrothermal synthesis. They are also used in industrial applications, especially regarding composites, see autoclave (industrial). Many autoclaves are used to sterilize equipment and supplies by subjecting them to pressurized saturated steam at 121 °C (249 °F) for around 15–20 minutes depending on the size of the load and the contents. The autoclave was invented by
Hermes Fastening his Sandal has retained its head and has escaped the eighteenth-century Roman restorers; it is now conserved at the Acropolis museum, Athens. Other variants include sculptures in similar, but reversed mirror-image poses, probably intended as pendants to the "Hermes Fastening his Sandal". The theme was taken up by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle in 1744, and by François Rude, who showed at the Paris salon of 1828 a "Mercury Fastening his Sandal" in plaster. Rude's god instead shows the influence of Giambologna’s famous "Mercury" (c. 1580; Florence, Bargello) Hermes Fastening his Sandal The sculptures of Hermes Fastening his Sandal, which exist in several versions, are