New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-06-03
POSSIBLE USES OF LIQUID AIR
GREAT INTEREST IN THE EXPERIMENTS BY
CHARLES L. TRIPLER

GREAT INTEREST IN THE EXPERIMENTS BY
CHARLES f. TRIPLER.
Within the last three months a good deal OF popu-
lar interest has been excited by accounts printed
IN The Tribune and other newspapers In the rather
sensational experiments conducted with liquid air
by Charles F. Tripler number Of private and
public demonstrations have been given for the
benefit OF men who were either identified with SCI
entihc research and instruction or represented I'M
portant Industries. And now the monthly maya
zines are beginning to take the matter up. The
Cosmopolitan" for June. for instance. prints an
article about liquid air. whose chief value lies In
the fact that II comes from Mr. TripleCs own pen
This man belongs TO q class which is entitled TO
the highest honor, and is altogether too small He
does not profess 10 be scientist According 10 his
own statement he is only an inventor But he Is
one Of those exceedingly practical fellows who
take hold OF an idea and make II useful. Faraday
showed nearly a century ago, that by moving a
coil OF wire in front Of magnet a current Of
electricity could be induced In the wire More than
a generation elapsed, though, before Gramme. Sic
mems Brush Edison and others produced the
dynamo which embodied that principle. and placed
Il az the service Of mankind The laws which un-
derlie tho Nquefac,ion Of gases have long been
known and Caietct, Pictet. OlzeNski and Dewar
so applied them that they obtained few drops or
liquid oxygen, and even Of liquid hydrogen, But
the cost OF pint o. liquid air which ne employed
IN Of his pub9 eSHes IN kond2n n at ne V Sa
relfuI cheapIy and yet ne utilities the same means
-compresslon ard the cold Of expansion-as those
distinguished chemists did.
The portion Of the Cosmopolitan" article which
will receive the most attention. perhaps. is that
which briefly discusses the possible uses OF the
commodity that Mr.. Trlpler has shown us how TO
make one OF its most valuable applications. evil
GENTLY VIII be 10 the work Of rcrigeration. In
storage warehouses and railway cars. II Is also
suggested tina; liquid air ought TO afford con,
yenient means for cooling private houses ana
places where large numbers Of people consregate
In summer In hospitals where yellow Iever ana
other bacterial diseases are being treated, II can
be employed to yield an atmosphere that Is abs0-
lu,ey free from germs. For cautery, too, II -
thought that this agent is superior 10 the nitrate
OF silver. inasmuch as lis operation can oe regu-
lated with more precision. The value OF liquid air
as an explosive has been illustrated repeatedly,
although II is not yet quite clear whether 1t Is GO
Ing to be cheaper than dynamite and gun-cotton.
TIE possibility of using 1t to cool cannon while
being nred is still under consideration
The extent to which this substance can De turned
20 account in the storage OF power depends very
largely upon the perfection Of an engine In which
n Will work satisfactorily \ good deal OF trouble
was experienced at first In using air sun IN a
gaseous form reduced TO one one hundrcd-and-i0r
tieth of It's normal volume. and having pressure
OF . 90 pounds to inch Liquid air occupies only
an eight -hundredth OF the space that the gas does
In It's ordinary state and eXerts no pressure NJ all
until the Instant OF its evaporation. whether the
force thus suddenly exered can be adequately con
troled or is question of much import e.
This difficulty met. the use OF LIQUID air for
power purposes should be extensive.