Acommonmethodfortheproductionofliquidnitrogenistheliquefactionof

air.Pioneer work on the liquefaction of gases was carried out by the English scientist Michael
Faraday (1791-1867) in the early 1820s. Faraday was able to liquefy gases with high critical
temperatures such as chlorine, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen bromide, and carbon dioxide by the
application of pressure alone. It was not until a half century later, however, that researchers
found ways to liquefy gases with lower critical temperatures, such as oxygen, nitrogen, and
carbon mono xide. The French physicist Louis Paul Cailletet (1832-1913) and the Swiss chemist
Raoul Pierre Pictet (1846-1929) developed devices using the nozzle and porous plug method for
liquefying these gases. It was not until the end of the nineteenth century that the two gases with
the lowest critical temperatures, hydrogen (-399.5F [-239.7C; 33.3K]) and helium (-449.9F [267.7C; 5.3K]) were liquefied by the work of the Scottish scientist James Dewar(1842-1923)
and the Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853-1926), respectively.( <a
href="http://science.jrank.org/pages/2927/Gases-Liquefaction-History.html">Liquefaction of
Gases - History</a>).