The principle of corresponding states goes back over 100 years, to J.D. van der Waals in 1880, in connection with the equation of state and the critical constants of gases. It played an important role around the turn of the century in the liquefaction of the last of the so-called permanent gases, hydrogen and helium, by Dewar and by Kamerlingh Onnes, respectively, who used it to predict boiling points and other properties.