The history of the thermos flask is quickly told, albeit her story has had long repercussions during its days up to this day. In 1903, the company "Linde" in Berlin managed to produce liquid oxygen for the first time. There was, however, a problem of storage. Oxygen only becomes liquid at minus 196 degrees. It was therefore necessary to have a vessel which can keep this temperature constant over longer periods of time. Reinhold Burger had found a solution after many experiments. He produced the vessels and offered them to Linde. The company accepted them and gave him a contract to supply them. Burger was keen on improving his invention further. As he lacked liquid oxygen for his experiments he had to use hot water. One day he realised that hot coffee or tea would do the job equally well. The idea of the "Thermos" was born. Nonetheless, the thermos flask was far from being ready for everyday usage. While pouring, the weight of the liquid broke the bottle neck between the inner and outer rim. To prevent that, Burger invented a system of inner support structures. He obtained patent No. 170057 from the German patent office for a "vessel with double walls enclosing an air-less space" . An unrivalled invention was born that is still being used in almost its original form. Reinhold Burger called his invention "Thermos" and ran the advert "keeps cold, keeps warm, keeps nice - without fire, without ice". Facing severe marketing problems Burger decided to sell both the patent as well as the trademark in 1909 to the "Thermos AG" and the "Thermos Bottle Company" in the USA. In 2003 we celebrate the 100th anniversary of this unique invention. Her unchanged beauty is ample evidence of her superiority in her field. She has long been underappreciated - especially as being invented by Reinhold Burger.
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