The record-union., 1898-07-10

fOf a family refrigerator and allowed to
permeate the things therein. after which
. it might be brought out and allowed to
cool off the drawing-room or supply an
autumn breeze to a Sacramento bed
room in July. Its uses would not then
be exhausted, for there would still be
enough left to run an ice-cream freezer.
saw the wood and churn the butter The
remnant might be allowed to evaporate
around the house in such a way as to
supply several thousand feet Of genuine
air, free Of microbes and as fresh as a
| breeze from Shasta
The marvellous things claimed for this
new form of force are set forth by Pro-
lessor Tripler in the following concise
interview in the New York Herald"
and this contains his latest word on the
subject:
Heat is the equivalent of force, as
everybody knows, and heat is all
around US. Hitherto, however, we have
been able to utilize only the heat which
rises considerably above the ordinary
temperature of things The heat of
coal, for instance, becomes effective in
the steam engine only when the boil
ing point of water is reached: all that
lies between this and the absolute zero
supposed TO be about AGO degrees be-
low zero, Fahrenheit-is wholly wasted.
More than W per cent of the potential
energy of the coal consumed, repre-
senting 612 degrees of temperature is
thrown away, even in the most per-
feet engines
But liquid air, from the fact that it
, boils and develops enormous pressure
at a temperature 312 degrees below
zero, enables us to utilize this waste
not quite all, but most of it. Under
stand me, liquid air is not a force in
itself-no more so than water standing
in pail 1t is heat that does the work,
but this substance, which boils and ex-
pands at a temperature where all else
is frozen solid, nables us to get work
out of the ordinary low-tension heat
which is in everything. Confined in a
properly constructed boiler, it acts pre-
cisely like steam. though with even
greater energy, the difference being
that no fire is needed to boil it. Its
condition at 30 degrees Fahrenheit is
like water at, say, 800 degrees. You
would not need fire to boil water if the
whole earth were red-hot, as it is rela-
lively to liquid air
1T is entirely possible therefore, for
a warship, furnished with my APP
paratus and equipped with suitable
engines-all very easily provided-to be
driven indefinitely at the highest rate
of speed which her construction en-
ableS her to endure, propelled by the
heat of the waters that buoy her up
eXerted upon liquid air. Where would
she get the liquid air? She would
make it as needed from the winds
blowing over her decks by the use of
simple and by no means expensive ap-
paratuS, which | can show you in
actual operation at my laboratory. She
should have a little coal on board
to start the process-that is all She
could then plow through the waves for
year at a stretch without requiring
a fresh supply, and no vessels depend
ent on steam could compete with her.
Yet if Uncle Sam is distrustful, he
might at first fit up a few ships with
auxiliary engines Of this sort, still
keeping steam as reserve force, to be
used if needed"
AS before stated, there is a great
deal of interest among local chemists
in the question Of the use Of liquid
air. Professor Whitbeck has carefully
read the accounts of the Tripler in
ances of liquefied air are very wonder
full He says he will be glad to ex-
pertinent to the fullest extent and give
the schools every advantage of what
is known as soon as Tripler makes
known more about the strange fluid
F. E. Ray, chemist, who formerly
taught in the public schools, is inclined
to doubt much Of what is claimed
by Tripler. Il fear it all sounds too
much like the mysterious Keeley motor
to ever come true he said. though
there is a vast power in liquid air, as
all students of the subject know. E.X-
periments in these matters have been
made for many years, and we have II
laid down on the authority of the Old
est physicists that the expansive power
of the various gases under liquefaction
is something marvellous. If Tripler can
do half what is claimed in the news
papers he will rank as one of the great
est men in the world, though l never
heard of him, and j frankly confess
that | had no idea who he was until
this talk about liquid air."