At the same time as Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa in Moscow, Don Misener and Allen independently discovered the superfluid phase of matter in 1937 using liquid helium in the Royal Society Mond Laboratory in Cambridge, England.
[3] John Allen studied physics initially at the University of Manitoba, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1928.
He there developed and built his first cryostat which was taken by John McLennan for a demonstration of superconductivity in a public lecture to the Royal Institution in London.
[4] In 1935, he joined the Mond Laboratory of the Royal Society in Cambridge to work with Pyotr Kapitsa on low temperature experiments.
[13] The building of the School of Physics and Astronomy of the University of St Andrews is named after John Allen, as is the library in the J.F.
[4] In 1937, Allen discovered superfluid helium together with his student Don Misener in the Mond laboratory in Cambridge, independent of Pyotr Kapitsa in Moscow.
During World War II, this included the development of on-board oxygen generators for bombers, and a variable time fuse for anti-aircraft shells.
[10] Allen also used a movie camera to film his experiments, such as the superfluid helium fountain, which he discovered in 1938 with the help of a pocket flashlight.