His big discovery was proving that evaporation occurs in sealed environments
One ordeal parents endure is when their kids, surrounded by every imaginable toy, game, or video accessory, say, “I’m bored”. In my childhood, my parents would be quick to assign me a task, usually an unpleasant one, to alleviate my ennui. If my kids had their way, every day would be like a trip to an amusement park with a whirlwind of activities to keep them entertained. I go to great lengths to explain that being bored is part of life and that as adults, they will face boredom quite often. I use activities that exemplify boredom like “watching grass grow” or “watching paint dry” and I advise them to take advantage of those times when there is “nothing to do”. One example I use is Nils Wallerius (1706 – 1764), a Swedish physicist, philosopher, and theologian. His tolerance for boredom was amazing as he is known for being one of the first scientists to study evaporation using modern scientific methods. His job was literally to do the equivalent of watching paint dry. His experiments included observing the weight loss of an egg over an entire year and documenting the time for a cup of wine to evaporate. His big discovery was proving that evaporation occurs in sealed environments. Wallerious may have liked boring activities but his work on evaporation led to others discovering air conditioning, the AC in HVAC systems. Instead of wine evaporating in an open glass, refrigerants sealed in the HVAC loop do their magic when they evaporate and draw energy from their surroundings, which is the basis for AC. Now, when my kids complain they are bored, I tell them to go outside, observe the condenser unit and try to make a great observation as Wallerius did during his times of boredom.