Cambridge and the Royal Institution
Born in Kincardine, Scotland, Dewar studied in Edinburgh. He became Jacksonian Professor at Cambridge in 1875 and Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution in 1877. He combined teaching and experimental work at the two institutions, with liquefied gases and their properties becoming a major research interest.
References: [1]
Vacuum vessels
In 1892 Dewar demonstrated a double-walled glass vessel for cold substances. The walls were joined at the neck and partly evacuated between them to reduce heat transfer and slow evaporation; silvered surfaces were added later. An earlier vacuum goblet made with Peter Tait in 1872 had kept liquids warm. The narrow-necked vessel adapted this approach to keeping liquefied gases cold.
References: [2]
Liquefying hydrogen
Dewar liquefied hydrogen at the Royal Institution in 1898. Producing and retaining such a liquid required both refrigeration and containers that admitted little heat. The vacuum flask served as laboratory apparatus for this work and provided the technical basis of later household insulating vessels.