Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-06-08
LIQUID AIR EXPERIMENTS.
Process Of Reduction and the Results That
Are Obtained.


believed that not only the air, bat all
other matter which appears usually in
gaseous form, could be reduced to a
liquid form, or even to a form equiva
lent to that of ice or snow, and in some
cases possibly to a metallic form, if
only enough pressure could be put upon
it. or enough cold produced to shrink
it's volume to this extent. Long ago
this was done with sulphurous oxide,
the bad-smelling gas which results
from burning sulphur match. This
gas takes only a pressure of about
forty pounds to the square inch to re-
duce it to q liquid form. or to be
brought to the zero temperature of the
Fahrenheit thermometer to produce
the same result Carbonc acid gas
was one of the next of these invisible
and almost intangible substances TO be
brought to a liquid form, and this soon
afterward was actually frozen into a
silvery snow, which would retain this
form for long time in the open air
With this carbonic acid snow many
interesting experiments were tried,
showing the effects upon various sub
stances of degrees Of cold, such as man
had never before been able to produce
and far below any which are known in
nature. But to reduce carbonic acid
gas to liquid form required pressure
of 800 pounds to the square inch at
ordinary temperatures and a pressure
of 525 pounds to the inch even when
the temperature of the gas is reduced
to the freezing point of water. At 20
LAtn Il a,hnr aniI
gas becomes transparent ice The
liquefied gas turns back into it's case
Gus form at once when the pressure
upon it is removed. and therefore it
could not be used in that form for eX
periments. By letting a stream of the
gas escape through the meshes of a
woollen bag the carbOnic acid snow
could be produced and gathered in large
quantities. The gas, as it expanded de-
manded and drew heat from all about
it. and in the absence of heat equiva-
lent to it's enlargement in form the
temperature of the gas fell until a con-
siderable part of it was frozen by the
rest and caught in the meshes of the
bag.
The temperature of this snow is never
the constant but slow evaporation
which takes place from it's exposed
surface reduces this to about rs de
grees below zero. BY mixing this snow
with ether. a more rapid evaporation
was produced, and this reduced the
temperature of the mixture 25 degrees
lower to $50 below zero. Until lique
fed air was produced in large quaint
ties this was the lowest temperature
which could be produced and held for
any appreciable time for experimental
purposes. But today we are able to
liquefy air. to turn it into liquid
which seems as stable as water and as
limpid and harmless. and yet this sim
ple-looking material is so cold that if
some of the frozen carbonic acid gas be
thrown into it. with its temperature of
$50 degrees below zero, it would set the
air to boiling violently, and there would
be a greater difference in their tenn
peratures than there is between the
Croton water as we draw it from the
tap and the boiling water we wet our
tea with.
To liquefy air it must be reduced 10
1-71S part of its original bulk. or to a
temperature of 301 degrees below zero.
If it We're attempted to liquefy the air
by direct pressure. it would take nearly
II 900 pounds to the square inch to aC-
cOmplish this. Prof. DeWar of Eng
land first succeeded in producing lique-
fled air about three years ago. He used
a combination of pressures and refrig-
erations. but he was able to secure
Mt of int CT -
ing liquid Mr. Charles L. Tripler of
this city, has since succeeded in pro-
ducing liquid air in large quantities,
and this he has supplied freely to Col
umbia college and other scientific in
stitutions for experimental purposes.
besides giving many interesting eX-
hibitions of it himself. Mr.. Tripler
has not made the details of his liquc-
flying machine public. but it is pretty
well known how it works Mr.. Trip
Ter begins the compression Of the air
by using an air pump, driven by a
twenty horse power steam engine.
This squeezes the air down to a pres
sure of perhaps $500 to 5000 pounds to
the square inch. In this state it flows
through cooled tube under water
where the heat made manifest by COM
preston is taken away by flowing wa
ter. After this little of the cooled air
is allowed to escape through a pinholo
into a long, small copper tube. while
other parts of the air are allowed to
escape and expand about the outside of
the tube, in space inCloSed with a
thick non-conducting covering. Grad
ually the temperature of the air With
IN the tube is reduced, until at last it
settles into the lower end of the tube
as a liquid and is drawn off at will by
the turning of Stopcock. AS the
liquid air is drawn off it resembles
skinned milk in color and consistency
The milky look is due to the gaseous
impurities which the free air had con
tanned. and these are now present in a
purely mechanical form. The impuri-
ties are water and carbonic acid gas
Both have been frozen into minute par
ticles OF snow as the air was cooled
and these bits are floating in the liquid
air.
10 get rid of these the air is poured
through fltering paper, just as one
would hitter water 1t comes through
as a beautiful limpid liu1lor of almost