Historically, this phenomenon complicated the experimental determination of thermal expansion coefficients of liquids, since a direct measurement of the change in height of a liquid column generated by thermal expansion is a measurement of the apparent expansion of the liquid. Thus the experiment simultaneously measures two coefficients of expansion and measurement of the expansion of a liquid must account for the expansion of the container as well. For example, when a flask with a long narrow stem, containing enough liquid to partially fill the stem itself, is placed in a heat bath, the height of the liquid column in the stem will initially drop, followed immediately by a rise of that height until the whole system of flask, liquid and heat bath has warmed through. The initial drop in the height of the liquid column is not due to an initial contraction of the liquid, but rather to the expansion of the flask as it contacts the heat bath first.