Dear Thermodynamic Ones:

In 1892, Scottish chemist James Dewar (no relation to John Dewar of the Scotch distillery) invented the thermal flask. His goal was to measure the specific heat of the element palladium. Dewar needed to stabilize the sample’s temperature before heating it in order to generate consistent data for his calculations. To solve this problem, he formed two brass containers and nested one inside the other. By heating and sealing the space between them, Dewar created a vacuum between the walls of the two flasks. Heat is transferred through the friction of molecules in motion as they crash into each other; the kinetic energy of their movement is absorbed and given off as radiated heat. If you reduce