The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1898-08-20

ducing apparatus in my laboratory
u supply of liquid has been slowly
boiling away. You will observe that
it now appears quite blue, as l pour it
out. That is because the nitrogen, be-
ing more volatile, has for the most part
boiled off, leaving a liquid which is
nearly rs per cent oxygen.
Wool, as you are aware, under Or
binary conditions, will not burn; it
merely scorches and crisps, and gives
off unpleasant odors. But when have
saturated a handful of 1t in liquid oxy-
gen, at the touch of a match it flashes
up like so much ~gunpowder, and is
gone in a moment. A mass Of hair
felt treated in the same burns
more like dampened gunpowder, with
a series of suffering flashes, but it
also is completely consumed. The next
experiment gives a contrast of extremes
of cold and heat which is without prec-
edent.
Pouring some of the liquid into a
smooth glass tumbler, l dip the bot
tom into a vessel of water. A thin
casing of ice Immediately forms about
it, but at once begins to crack with the
intense cold. By repeated dimensions,
however, adding coat after coat, l pres
emily get a sort of crackle-ware ice-cup,
thick enough to bear handling after
the tumbler upon which it has been
nodded has been withdrawn. This ice
cup ! partially fill with a liquid now
largely oxygen; and when l dip into it
the end of a steel wire to which a light
burns explosively, like a fuse, with a
brilliant effusion of sparks, so that the
chilly crystal around it glows like a
lamp. On inspecting the cup after this
display of fireworks is ended, you will
find that the sizzling metal has covered
the bottom with beads and pellets OF
steel-we have actually melted iron in
a crucible of ice!
AS the cup is quite uninjured by its
use as a melting pot, / refill it. Then,
taking a carbon rod, such as is used in
electric arc lamps, and heating the tip
to redness, l plunge it into the oxygen.
1t burns in the boiling liquid with in
tense brightness though rather slowly
on account of it's extreme density.
To conclude the experiment., l drop in
a lighted cigarette. 1t m up like
a fashlight. Yet the ice cup has not
thawed in the least, and I set it aside
covered with a fine, dry dust of frost.
1t remains to show the explosive
power of this mysterious liquid under
various conditions. l first take a heavy
copper tube about a foot long, sealed a.
the lower end, and having poured in g
few drops of liquid air, hammer a close.
ly fitting wood plug into the orifice. ]
have scarcely time to step back be.
fore the expanding vapor blows out
the plug with a loud explosion, driv
force; in the open air l have see il
hurled to a height of three hundred feet
The confined liquid has behaved eX'
actly as water would act in a tub
heated white hot.
Here the action is purely mechani'
cal, but by taking advantage of the in
tense chemical activity of oxygen, eX
plosions of far greater violence ma.
be obtained. To illustrate this, l sat
urate in the azure-tinted liquid a wac
of oily cotton waste, and place it in
steel tube of great strength, open a
both ends. When a spark is applied
which must be done from a safe dis
tance-the tube is rent in fragments
If the wad were first wet with turpen
tine, the explosive force would exceed
that of gun cotton.