Electric power superconductivity

Superconductivity dates back to 1911, when a Dutch physicist determined that the element mercury, when cooled to minus 452 degrees Fahrenheit, has virtually no electrical resistance. That is, it lost zero electric power when used as a means to distribute electricity from one spot to another. Two decades later, in 1933, a German physicist named Walther Meissner discovered that superconductors have no interior magnetic field. This property enabled superconductivity to be put to commercial use by 1984, when magnetic resonance imaging machines (MRIs) were commercialized for medical imaging. 

R. L. Garwin and J. Matisoo, Superconducting Lines for Transmission of Large Amounts of Electrical Power over Great Distances, Proc. IEEE 55, 538 (1967). 

In the 1980s, a ceramic form of copper(I) oxide was found to have superconducting properties at temperatures higher than previously known superconductors. Superconductors have the ability to carry an electric current virtually without resistance. Once a current is initiated in a superconductor, it continues to travel through the material essentially forever. Superconductor research may lead to new technologies, from cheaper electrical power to magnetically levitated high-speed trains. 

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