The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-02-29
THE AIR WE BREATHE.
Prof. Denote Tells Large Audience at Y. III.
C. A. Hall Some Strange Things About 1t.

At the hall of the Y. NJ. c. A last night Prof.
j. b. Denote, of DePauw University, had
large audience to hear his interesting lecture On
1.-THE Air WeBrea.he." While he referred only
incidentally to its relation to life, many of its
scientific phenomena he detailed with clear
ness that held the attention of his auditors from
first to last The interest was enhanced by
series of experiments to illustrate more forcibly
the various properties and power of air. Be-
ginning with the alusion that SCIENTIST held air
to be less dense than it was in
the paleozoic age, he said some no doubt
thought they could conceive of time when
the atmosphere would disappear. But IN that
time he thought the people of Indianapolis
would be enterprising enough to form a trust
and pipe air from somewhere. We live at the
bottom of q vast sea of air. We cannot get out
of it if we would. From this he briefly sketched
the effects observes in climbing high
mountain into a rarer atmosphere. headache
is first observable, and then a total change in
the physical condition for the worse until he
becomes sick unto death. Higher still and blood
spurts from the nostrils. IT one Should go seven
miles high, the highest point vet reached by a
balloon, death would oversake him.
The ancients knew something about air, but
nothing of it's properties The molecular theory
WAS to them unknown but they believed the at
mosphere to be spiritual influence, in which
each particle had identity. They knew how
it for navigation and wind mills. but for
twenty centuries the secret of what air was re-
manned locked scientific investigation.
Galileo opened the door, and Torrece1li thee,
a few years later, called the attention of tie
civilized world to his experiments which several
countries were loath to receive until the Pascal
experiments led to the settlement of the fact
that air had weight. From this the barometer
came, but the marks it are no indication of
scientific accuracy. The only thing it tells to
certainty is that the air is heavy or light as the
case may be, and that cold attends 10 baron
eter. But this experiment was a great advance
for science and laid the foundation of modern
chemistry. The weight Of air every person
is about fifteen tons. If the earth was covered
with blanket of lead equal in weight TO that of
air, t would reach the chin of six ieet high.
The Professor then gave several interesting
experiments, to show the pressure of air, which.
as q liquid, makes the liquid. It would be i'm
possible for liquid to existk in vacuum.
If The air was removed all the streams, rivers
and other waters in the earth would disappear.
The simple process of boiling is only the chang
ing of liquid into gas by the removal of the air.
With this he illustrated the outward, inward,
upward and downward force of air.
Air also exerts force at the
same time in all directions. In
giving description Of the bolometer q com
paratively new scientific instrument, he said
several things had been proven by it in regard
to the suns rays. They twice great as
they assumed to be, but Notwithstanding
that intense heat of the atmosphere was taken
away, there would be an intense cold on the
earth, reaching 40 degrees below zero Again.
il il was not for the air. every rain drop would
fall with such force to kill the person it
struck,