The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-07-12

1 i
| the air of their work rooms in free circu-
| lation.
| In the restaurants wine and beer are
| raised from the cellar by it and some
| times even glasses filled. In the great
| wine market of Paris barrels are filled
| from the cellar below.
| Many elevators have changed from
| hydraulic pressure to compressed air.
| In this case the air is cheaper, costing but
| two confines cubic meter to thirty-two
| confines for water. Ordinarily, however,
there is no gain in the item of expense
| Compressed air costs about the same as
/ steam.
| An application which would be bless
| ing in the United States is the air tele-
| graph, by which letters are transmitted
| about Paris without the provoking delays
| of the ordinary mail. Cards are sent for
| 6 cents sealed letters for Is. In 1889 these
tubes carried nearly 20,OOO,000 pieces of
| mail. This idea is used on a similar scale
| in the French bank, where letters are sent
! from one story to another by air and in the
Credit Lyonnais, where packages are trans
| mitted.
| Everybody who has studied his 'four-
| teen weeks" or even less in natural phil
| osophy, remembers that the temperature
| of com pressed air lowers rapidly when it
! produced. This property has been skill
| fully utilized at Paris. The most elabo-
| rate application is seen under the Bourse
| du Commerce. An electric motor run by
| compressed air is in the cellar of the build
| ing. Connected with the air motor is a
wooden canal perhaps a foot square; into
! this flows a certain per cent. of the air.
| The canal conducts this to a series Of
| sixteen small refrigerating rooms. This
| air produces sufficient cold to keep the
| room below zero the year around. When
| visited the refrigeratOrs the temperature
Il r. j. -
room a frieZe OF snow and ice decorated
the walls. Butter, cheese, fish, game,
beef, veal, all things which may be pre-
| served by freezing are stored here. The
rooms are rented by the year and the
| space is by no means equal to the demand.
for the bourse is but short distance from
the great central market of Paris.
l saw in visiting these chambers very
pretty illustration of the rapidity with
which cold is produced the instant the
compressed air is released. The wooden
conduit which crossed the basement floor
leaked. On either side OF the pipe fine
snow was steadily falling, heaping up
drifts which, if diminutive, were none the
less natural.
The possibilities in refrigeration are linn
itless; especially do the restaurants and
hotels find out this value. Everywhere
that the compressed air runs an electric
machine refrigerators may be attached
also used sometimes in summer for cool
ing rooms, an application which undoubt-
edly will be more and more frequent in
the future.
But it is to the small industries that it
renders service the most necessary. Paris
is full of craftsmen who carry on small in
dependent trades. Their work-benches
are sometimes in their living rooms; at
best their shops are narrow and inconven-
lent places. Compressed air offers a null
titude of advantages to them. Its motor
is small and can be put anywhere. The
force can be conveyed to any part of the
room by means of rubber pipe. They
pay for only the actual force used. 1t is
claimed by compressed air advocates that
the expense of conducting small industries
has been decreased 80 per cent. by the
introduction of the motive power.
You find it applied in the most unex-
pected places. There is a scissor grinder
and knife sharpener at Paris who occupies
little shop just big enough to hold him
self and his machine. and where the GUS
toner must do his bargaining from with
out through the window, who has small
air motor attached to his machine. He
plies his trade without the wearisome
treadling and with threefold greater
speed.
The sewing machine is run by it with an
ease and speed which adds tenfold to the
value of this household divinity. The at
tachment is very simple. The speed can
be regulated perfectly. Both hands are
tree to guide the work. Partisan tailors
use this force quite generally in their
sewing rooms, much to the Joy of their
employees.
But mere list of the applications would
require column. The dentist uses it to
run his dreaded drill, the engraver and
polisher for fine metal work, the tailor for
cutting as well as sewing, the carpenter
tar
cylinders, button makers, embroider-
ers-all those who for any purpose use
machines which require other than hand
power find in compressed air safe, con-
| venient, trustworthy servant. Not only
does it run the machines, but it actually
oils them from the reservoirs which are
kept filled.
But the manufacture and applications
of compressed air are soon. it is almost
certain, to be demonstrated to Americans
in much more effective manner than
they can be described in newspaper arti-
Gle. Mr.. Popp is planning an exhibit for the
Worlds fair, in which the entire process
will be illustrated by means of the latest,
most highly perfected machines and where
variety of applications, bizarre and
serious, will be displayed. He has asked
NJ. Hartogh to go with this exhibit, and if
he should. machinery lovers will find him
able and willing to explain to them in ex-
cellent English-or any one of several
other languages if they wish-all the mys-
tcries and advantages of the force.
1t only needs. l am convinced, a short
exposition of the system in America for
all our large cities, at least, to see their
manufacturers generating their own cleo
tricity, running their clocks, propelling
their elevators. ventilating their rooms.
transporting their packages, cooling their
beverages and oiiing their machines, all
from modest little motors tucked away in
convenient corners and used by turning
stopcock more or less, according to the
demands for the force which the work
makes. IDA NJ. TARBELL.