The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-12
Liquid Air.

Announcement has been made in the
public prints of the commercial lique-
faction of air What does that mean,
and what does Il signify?" may be asked
It means that process has been perfect
ed whereby air can be hquified at cost
so low that the liquid can be used for
commercial or other purposes, and 1t sig
nifes in all probability the inauguration
of a new era in refrigeration, and posi-
bly, also in propulsion and explosion.
Liquid air, in short, is one of the most
remarkable discoveries of the century, and
its uses are almost without number. Ger
tainly they have not nearly been cata-
logued yet Before the end IS reached,
liquid air may be found a more tractable
and universally useful servant than even
electricity, which is now made to cater to
a very great variety of our wants
1t is of interest to know what liquid air
is. In short, it is a condensation into
liquid form of the air which we breathe.
The old textbooks of natural philosophy
told us that air was incapable of liquefac-
ton, but that was a mistake. Modern
scientists have succeeded, by mechanical
part of the heat stored up in 1t by the sun.
and condensing the air into one-eight
hundredth of it's natural volume, at which
point the air becomes a pale blue liquid.
In Its liquid state the air is S12 degrees be-
low zero, Fahrenheit, and 500 cubic feet
of natural air are compressed into one foot
of liquid air. In the excessive frigidity of
the liquid, and it's great expansive power
in returning to its original form of the
circumambient atmosphere, lie the most
prodige possibilities.
In an article in the June Cosmopolitan
MIR. Charles T.. Trplier, who has succeed
ed in making liquihed air in commercial
quantities. outlines some of the possibil-
ties of the wonderful article. With 1t
steel rods may be set on fire and burned
with a match, nearly all metals may be
made as friable as terra Gotta, cotton and
sponge may be detonated as IL they were
nitroglycerine or guncotton, engines may
be driven. projectiles may be fired and ex-
ploded, air ships may be propelled, and
other wonders worked. AS a destroyer
owing to its monstrous expansive force,
il can be made a most terrible agent;
nevertheless il can be handled with alb
solute safety since a shock will not dis
turb il. 1t must be detonated with a
flame
AS a peaceful commercial agent the
liquid can be used for refrgerating cars
and storage rooms. cooling hotels and res
licences, and lowering the temperature of
sick rooms and hospital wards. Mr.. Trip
lier says that in hotels and other large
which is used for running the elevators
and driving the dynamos can be turned to
account for all kinds of refrgeratlng.
Liquid air is chemically pure. Manifest
ly it would be impossible for disease germs
to live in a temperature of 312 degrees
below zero, Fahrenheit. or 800 degrees be-
low the freezing point; therefore the posi-
bilties of the liquid in medicine and sur
gerry are very great "The temperature
in hospital wards, even in the tropics"
says Mr. Triplier, could be readily cooled
TO any degree prescribed by the physician
in charge; and by keeping the air about
yellow fever patients down to the frost
point the nurses would be perfectly pro
tected against contagion and the recovery
Of the patients themselves facilitated"
Again, the cauterizing cold which LIQUID
air is capable of producing might be used
in cases of cancer, and probably also in
consumption, hay fever and asthma.
In conclusion Mr.. Triplier says of the