We hear of events from the early 19th century onward that led to the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in the 1980s. Surprisingly, it all started with Humphry Davy and his assistant, Michael Faraday, and continued with a competition between Kamerlingh Onnes and James Dewar over who could liquefy hydrogen first. After that, Onnes turned to the idea of finding evidence for condensation of newly discovered electron fluids. The competition in the 1980s for high-temperature superconductivity was a race between Paul Chu in Houston, IBM Zürich, and Bell Labs.

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