HISTORY OF PHYSICS
Superconductivity, the electric conduction without energy loss below a critical temperature, was discovered in 1911 by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, at Leiden.
1/
In Berlin, 1934, Walther Meissner and Robert Ochsenfeld discovered that superconducting materials expel magnetic fields from their interiors.
2/
@VergaraLautaro I'm surprised by the gap between 1911 and 1934.
I would expect the lack of magnetic field inside to be theorized ~immediately (or at least once it was noticed that the zero resistance also applied to AC), given that Lenz's law was formulated in first half of 19th century.
So was it just hard to directly observe the magnetic field around superconductive samples?
@robryk
Both World Wars had an impact on research, also on superconductivity.
Field expulsion does not follow from Lenz’s law, since perfect conductor would produce currents to *maintain* a field that was present already, and for years that’s what experiments seemed to show.
Here’s a book-length history that does a nice job of describing the intellectual history and putting it into social and political context.
https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/the-cold-wars/9780813532950
So the field inside would remain constant over time, right?
Thanks for the reference, it's even in a local library \./
@robryk @VergaraLautaro
Exactly right! And you’re very welcome — always happy to spread superconductivity love.