Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1893-06-02
Liquid Air.

So quietly that few are aware Of its
full import has one of the greatest chemic-
al achievements of al time been lately
accomplished. The discovery Of a proc
ess by which common air can be re-
duced to liquid form is victory for
science with which it may well be salts
fed to round up the nineteenth century.
Professor James Dewar has found that
by the application of a cold so intense
that we can scarcely conceive of it-369
degrees below Fahrenheits freezing
point-the gaseous air becomes a liquid
which can be poured in and out of bot
ties like water He has solved, too, the
problem, finally, of what makes the sky
blue. Under his experiment the nitro
gen Of the air is turned into a colorless
liquid, while the oxygen becomes a liquid
of faint exquisite blue color The
blue of the sky is therefore caused by a
blue tinge to its oxygen, and as we look
upward through miles of this cerulean
gas we get the shining blue of the sky.
1t is to be inferred that the different
forms of matter are due to the degree of
heat that permeates their particles. Rea-
soning from the discovery of Professor
Dewar, scientific men say that if the
SUMS heat were suddenly withdrawn
the oxygen of our atmosphere would sud
denly fall in a mighty ocean all over the
earth and submerge it with blue liquid
to the depth of 80 miles. Still more dar-
ing reasoners wonder whether, after all,
the celebrated theory may not be true
that there is only one original substance
and all the others are merely different
forms of this original
The side of Professor Dewar's great
discovery in which the public is most in
terested, however, Is the practical uses
to which liquid air may be put-whether
in future it may serve as important "a
part in ministering to our health, COM
fort and convenience as certain other
hquefied gases have already done. One
of these which is put to many uses is
hquefied carbonic acid; another is lique-
fed ammoniacal gas. Street cars have
already been propelled by both these
gases. The sudden liberation of them
from tremendous pressure causes me-
chanical motion.
Professor Doremus predicts that when
the airship becomes a success it will be
driven by liquefied gases. Certain it is
that in very few years the troublesome,
sloppy and expensive practice of taking
ice to keep food cool in hot weather will
be done away, and people will cool their
refrigerators by liquefied ammonia.
When it returns to the gaseous state, it
takes from the surrounding air such vast
quantities of heat that it cools every
thing in its vicinity. Either small ma
chimes for releasing the ammonia will be
adapted for use in every family refriger-
ater, or else pipes from central plant
will run not only to the refrigerator, but
through the whole house, cooling all the
atmosphere.
In a paper in The North American Re
view Professor r. Ogden Doremus says
that the best disinfectants are liquid
chlorine or sulphurous acid. Sulphurous
acid is produced by the burning of sui
phur. They can be carried in bottles and
liberated in rooms where contagious dis
eases have held their victims. and the air
will be purified He says snat enormous
quantities of chlorine gas will completely
disinfect anything from a cholera ship
to a surgical ward.