The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-05-20
GOSSIP OF ADAY.
A Discovery That Will Be
of Very Great Value.
Cheap Process for Production
of LiQuefied Air.
Air In Liquid Form Can Be Used fer
Manufacturing Purposes.

1t is now asserted quite confidently by
those who claim TO De we'll Informed on
the matter that one of the greatest dis.
coveries In the generation OF power Will
soon.be made 60 the world. IL has been
known for nearly year, IL II said, that
Prof. Linde of Berlin had invented pro-
cess for producing at low cost llquened
air. 1t was not known, however, that
Prof. Trippler of New York has been con-
ducting highly successful experiments on
the same line, but such Is the fact.
Liquefying air is not new thing. how
ever It has been performed by exerting
enormous pressure or by freezing air to
an unusual degree, or by combination OF
pressure with refrigeration. There are so
many uses to which liquefled air can be
put that scientists hardly know where its
usefulness will end IL IL can be produced
at low rate OF cost in commercial quapti-
ties Among other advantages air In the
portable cheap form of a liquid as 1t passes
back 10 its ordinary state can be used FOR
illuminating purposes by mixing its
escaping gases with atmospheric air In
certain definite proportions. Moreover, as
n driving force In the way of detonators,
or explosive material TO drive engines,
liquid air is obviously u power that can
be under given conditions profitably
applied.
The classic example Of method TO
vented by Beatty and Caulett in 1877.
With their machine one began with car
bonic acid gas. BY means Of pump
this gas was condensed in tube round
which lay water at 10 degrees To keen
the tube cool. The carbonic acid gas,
being reduced to very low temperature,
passed from the first tube into another
chamber with a tube In IL, and in so
doing fell To lower temperature. Into
this second tube was pumped at high
pressure ethylene gas which in turn fell
To a low temperatures, owing To the cold
ness of the carbonic acid gas bathing the
tube. The ethylene gas was then passed
from the second tube into third COM
partment and fell further in temperature
i'm so doing. The third compartment
had likewise tube with an air-pump
attached Into this third tube was
pumped oxygen gas and from the ethy-
lene gas bathing it the oxygen gas
reached a temperature of l92 degrees be-
low zero. Finally the oxygen was let
out into fourth compartment, in which
was fourth tube. The air-pump attached
to this fourth tube having filled it with
condensed atmospheric air the latter was
SO reduced in temperature that when IT
in turn was released from the tube its
temperature was 273 degrees below zero
and il appeared in the form of drops like
water.
The product which is called liquid or
fluid air has a milky appearance from
the presence of some carbonic-acid gas,
bubbles constantly, and from its enor-
nous cold emits smoke cloud, like the
top of n very high mountain, ana Will
only gradually resolve itself again into
air when exposed TO the ordinary atmos-
pheie. Fluid air costs about ten marks
(say s.. 25) for five cubic motors reduced.
The new method is the invention Of Prof
Linde of Munich. IL produces the liquid
for ten pfennigs (say 2hc)D for five cubic
meters, and it yields the product either as
"A gas or fluid as one wishes. This is one
of the most ingenius pieces OF mechanism
known. Its chief feature Is its economy
of working. for it uses air to regenerate
air. After the pump has worked for a
certain time one turns q cock and the
liquid air runs out at temperature OF
273 degrees below zero.
In Prof. Linde's process an air pump OF
five horse power condenses air TO pres
sure Of 200 atmospheres. This air passes
down a spiral tube and is let out in "A
chamber. causing great cold then 1T rises
and passes Oh the outside OF the spiral
tube bathing it and thus cooling the new
air that has been pumped into the tube TO
take its place. This cooled air follows on
into the chamber, expands and again
lowers its atmosphere. then passes on up
around the same spiral tube; but as its
temperature has become much lower the
new air in the tube is still further re-
frigerated. This circulating process goes
on until the new air pumped into the
tube reaches an expansion chamber at a
temperatue of 273 degrees below zero,
when it drops into the chamber in the
form of liquid. Thus the air. steadily
cooled. is made to refrigerate the newly
pumped air more and more until the
necessary degree of cold is attained.
Another idea which may or may not be
an improvement Is to have the pump and
all parts of the machine kept very low in
temperature. Air, in the cheap, portable
form of liquid rich in oxygen. can be used
for many purposes in manufactures and
the trades The discovery OF n cheap
method may be OF Importance TO Ameri-
can manufacturers. Mr.. Rex, of San
Francisco who delivered the lecture at
Stanford University last Monday night,
Is fully advised Of the great progress
made by the German scientists, but does
not hesitate to- assert that still greater
progress has been made In New York.
Within few weeks, possibly some time
this month. definite statement ex-
pressed in scientific terms may convey to
the public all the important facts relating
to the new discovery.