In the 1870s, Joseph William Swan solved the problem of the carbon filaments of electric light bulbs being oxidised by the intense heat of the current passing few them by placing the filament in a vacuum tube. Similarly, across the Atlantic, Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans made advances by displacing the air in the glass tube with nitrogen.
What strikes me about this story is that, when faced by similar problems of heat in the world of overclocking – rather than neatly sidestepping the issue, we instead opt for costly cooling devices. Why is this?