The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1878-02-22
ALL GASES LIQUEFED.

An Important Discovery Just Announced
We have before expressed the belief
that the last half Of the present century
/ will always be accounted among the
! great eras of scientific discovery. There
are so many wonderful results of recent
research that it is difficult to enumerste
even the most prominent ones. Among
| them are the invention Of the spectre
| scope, with the discoveries reaching from
earth TO inconoeiyably distant fixed stars.
which have 6llowed in its train; the
determination Of the laws Of the correla-
tion Of fopces and the conservation OF
energy which succeeded the discovery
that heat is only O mode Of motion, aud
created new conceptions Of the whole
universe rs to its past, present and fu.
ture the preparation Of the aniline col
ore, which has furnished an infinite num-
Der of iridiscent and varying hues; the
composition, from lifeless elements, Of
many organic substances, by which false
notions about vital force (which had been
accounted half mirsculeus) have been
overthrown; the discovery Of the satel-
lites of Mars, which round out
and nearly complete the picture
of the solar system; the invention
of the telephone and the phonogrspb,
which enables us on the one hand
to transmit our voices to great
distances. or on the other, TO pre-
serve our utterances for indefinite periods,
80 that the speech Of to-day may be set
aside and heard again at any time in the
future.
To this wonderful record n new chap
ter is now to be added. Within q very
few weeks, two European investigators
have succeeded in condensing to a liquid
from all the gases that had hitherto defied
such effort. IN the early part of this
century, when certain gases were lique-
fed by Faraday and other experimenters,
the facts excited general interest, as
giving clue TO the real constitution Of
matter. The new experiments we're
widely tried, and in performing them at
Paris, in public lecture, an explosion
occurred which killed one Of the opera.
ting assistants. Then, for more than
half a century, discovery in this line was
almost suspended. Several gases, such
as nitricoxide, acetylene, nitrogen oxygen
and hydrogen, absolutely withstood all
attempts. Within few weeks the COM
pound gases named, aud some others,
have been liquefied. Next, oxygen
yielded to pressure and cold--an event
of sufficient importance to be telegraphed
by Professor Tvndall TO the London
Times, and to be announced at scientific
centers all over the world. Now comes
the announcement that the remaining
gases have undergone similar treat
ment, and are liquf ied--nitrogen under
a pressure of two hundred atmospheres;
hydrogen under two hundred and eighty.
The latter gas was only reduced to an
OPAQUE mist, but the air which we ordi-
narly breathe was converted into liquid
and poured out in fine stream. Tho
cold required for these experiments is
almost inconceivable. It Is estimated at
three hundred degrees below zero OF the
centigrade Thermometer, equivalent to
more than FIVE hundred degrees below,
Fahrenheft's scale.
The discoverers who have achieved
these Tesults-N. Cailletct, Of Paris, aud
NJ. Pictet, of Geneva-will receive due
honor from their scientific brethren. 1t
remains to be shown what the discoveries
teach. The degree of cold that was re-
ouired in condensing common air, though
remarkable, is Lot greater than is esti-
mated for the void of space through
which the planets are travelling; that
extends infinitely between and perhaps
beyond the stars. 1t was the low tenn
perature-not the CREST pressure-which
liouefied the gases they took the liquid
.orm while escaping from pressure, and IN
the act of escaping the extreme cold was
attained. II follows that, in the cold OF
space, unwarmed by the sun, an atnos-
nbere like that of our globe would heeze
first into a liquid, and then into solid
mass. becoming as last a mere rock IS
hard as granite. We can now better sp'
preciate the vast changes which coms'e
undergo in passing from the frozen con-
fines of our solar system to 50 close
neirhborhood OF the sun that they are Ie.
duced to a vapor Knowing now as We
do with certainty, the extremes Of iofm
to which all matter il liable We mA
surelv predict that the future OF oui
globe simply depends upon the am -. ~
Of heat received by its surface. ~, ~ -
heat dimipishes. al earth and a.. W = ,'rs ss
ausv .;lsut stone without the breath Of ,l's ,''s
upon it; if the heat increases e. s;'.~rN. - \.
world win melt in thin nrlN
ncrfhnne