The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-30

application to the purposes of street trac-
tdon that the general public has awak-
eneo to the immense utility and the wide
possibilities of compressed air. Within a
Few years, very largely within the last de-
cade, it has come to undertake such a
multiplicity of tasks that mere enumera-
Ton Of them is astonishing. We have
Blg known OF the value of air for sop
ping cars in the shape of the Westing
house brake; now it is used to start cars
as well. We are fairly familiar with its
work IN drilling out rock excavations for
the modern sky scraper; II is another mat
Ter to learn that this same compressed air
drill, used in the mine. has enormously
added 10 our wealth OF gold and silver. OF
coal ana iron and copper, through tfe
cheapening OF the production it has caus-
ed. 1t IS stu a further matter OF surprise
that this protean force ha turned canal
digger, and was the largest single agent
IN the construction OF Chicagos great
drainage canal. in many respects the
most wonderful canal in theworid.
We are acquainted with the
PNEUMATIC DYNAMITE GUN,
where compressed air is employed 10
throw a huge charge of high explosive
10 the distance of mile or so; it IL an
other matter to tnink of this same force
clearing carpets and busting cushions.
IL has been successfully employed TO pre-
pei locomotives in mines; ii is equally use
tul to shear sheep 1t viii operate a block
signal or II VIII steer a snip. It was
novel thing when we read of the buildings
OF the Worlds far being painted by com
pressed AR, but it is a common enough
thing now; il Is even used 10 polish and
Sdudpaper cars as well. In Paris II is
employed to run clocks and as cooling
agent in refrigeretors it runs motors,
proDels sewing machines, lifts scenery in
the theatres. drives iathes and printing
presses and street cars, and is the motive
power In all the little shops which turn
cut the curious articles de Paris, which
a-e 80 great a source Of revenue TO the
French capital
- We know ct its use in carrying mails in
pneumatic tubes. il Is now DrJFossed 40
make il carry freight. 1t is employed TO
raise sunken vessels and very shortly 1t
viii be introduced on the Erie canal TO
operate the locks. By the Dutton pneu-
1gat1c hsgh-lift lock 1t is proposed 10 pick
up great ocean liner and lift it as high
as Niagara with less effort and in less
time than it now requires to elevate
clumsy barge the height of a bean pole.
IN the railroad shops it is everywhere.
running machinery, hosting huge loads,
r1VetlnS bolts, driving hammers is en-
ployed in forging and in every conceiv-
able variety of work. In Kansas City
beeves are slaughtered, and the meat
dressed all by compreSsd air It Is
excellent pump, especially for deep wells;
1t IS used to pipe oil and pump chemicals.
1t is used by the physician and the sur
geon in many delicate operations. 1t
makes q good elevator hoist for grain.
With compressed air YOU may dump a
whole train of coal or dirt cars with the
pressure Of your thumb. II is used in
sculpture and in stone carving, it makes
q GOOD dredge, 1t raises and lowers rail-
road gates, il viii copy your letters. run
summer fans, il is used in the sugar re-
nnery and 10 the making Of asphalt and
OF rubber, and still again in the delicate
manufacture of fine silk In fact there
seems hardly n limit to the uses to which
1t may be put.
THE WONDER OF TT
now seems that all this has not been
done long age, Compressed air is not new
In the sense that electricity ls new. bow (
then does il come that it is only of very
recent years that il has been genera4iy I
usedE PIC525Iy The chief reason will APP
pear with hardly any explanation at ALL I
II was largely mania for things electro /
cal. 1t seems absurd to say that the
business world has been carried away
with a mere enthusiasm, and yet this is
literally the case The beginnings OF the /
Use OF compressed air were almost COIN /
cdent with the introduct:cn Of electricity. +
And compressed air beng known its |
possibilities being capable OF more or less |
accurate definition, it was literally neg
lected for It's less known, more snowy, /
and rnTsteriou9 rival.
1t is a frequent matter of remark now /
that mad d 1.-THE OF the money and brains (
ana genius been expended in the develop /
ment of compressed air as has been given /
To electricity, the present relation of the |
two forces would be reversed. For long |
time electricity represented the unknown;
It's possibilities were unqueStionably /
great; FOR a time they appeared bound
less. Now. however. It's capabilities are
more clearly outlined, It's powers definite
ly known and mechanical and inventive
genius is turning 10 the development of
the force of air
The three CHIEF factors of recent pro-
gEess are perhaps the perfection OF the
COMPRISING apparatus and of the reheat-
ing process and of the non-bursting steel
reservoir. When compressed air was first
tried il was found that the loss of power
in The process was enormous. Then again
there were thermodynamic difficulties
without number. Ii you put a thousand
cubic feet of air into the space of a sin
gle one, you develop a high degree Of
heat. and in orde; to use the air this heat
must in some way be drawn off. SINH
iary air at high pressure when released
oools rapidly; the result is freezing and
clogging. Ii used to be thought that these
difficulties ere for practical purposes in
superahle.
Now. however. these very difficulties
or rather the
CAUSES WHICH PRODUCE THEM,
are turning to prolific such excellent
profit as to afford an apparent paradox. 1
Ii seems idle 10 assert that you are able
TO get out Oh q machine as much power
as YOU put into lt--that this is perpetual
motion. And yet this is almost literally
true in the present day use of compressed
air
In this country there are air compress
ors built so perfectly that the loss of me-
cfanical efficiency in compression is only
about per. cent and OF the total eff
cheney only il or 20 per cent; that is to
say, II you use up a hundred horse power
IN the compression OF the air you Will
have force that viii, in the case of the
best type OF coIapresSors, give You eighty
or ninety horse power in return. Here
Incidentally is another triumph of Amer
lean mechanical genius. In the famous
PoDp system in Paris, where compressed
air is distributed through lbs miles of
mains. the efficiency realized is less than
SO per cent. &. little more than half that
in this country.
The compressor which does this work
is a beautiful machine of what is known
as The four stage type That is TO say,
the air is first Sriyen up TO about eighty
pounds pressure and then cooled by a
water Jacket, then turned into a second
cylinder. where IL is compressed still fur
ther then cooled again, and so on Up TO
TIE desired point, the air thus being kept
at about the same tenpera tur. as that
circumambient atmosphere.
Now. II the air be used in this condition.
technically known as cold it will as l
have already noted, realize efficiency
of so per cent. or more. But if. as it is
released It is passed through a. heater or
shot through
SUPERHEATED HOT WATER
ii will. under he well known properties
of Aair. enormously expand. 1t has been
fobAd possible TO add one horse power to
one-eighJh the original cost of compress
sion. One form of heater that has been
devised adds IS per cent. Of efficiency
with 1hollr this expenditure in the shar.a