The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-24
DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT
EFFECT OF TRYING TO MIX LIQUID
AIR AND RED PHOSPHORUS.
Explosion That Blinded n Professor
Who Was Experimenting with the
Newest Discovery OF Science.

NEW YORK, Oct. 23.-Lquefied air, the
newest discovery of science is a dangerous
quantity. Yesterday mention was made of
an explosion that resulted disastrously to
an expermenter. Professor Irving w. Fay,
of the Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn, was
making a test with red phosphorus and
liquid air in the chemical laboratory when
an explosion occurred His face was burned,
his eyes were made sightless. The shock of
the explosion stunned him. Whether 1t is
the phosphorus or the liquid air that ex-
plodes no one knows
Liquid air is the air that we breathe COM
pressed into the form of water. Red phos-
phorus Is ordinary phosphorus made
to burn in an insufficient supply
of air, or produced by the long-con-
tinued action of sunlight phosphorus
sticks kept under water The effect of mix
ing liquid air and red phosphorus was oxi-
dation and reaction OF explosive gases,
unless the flames and the explosion that
occurred came of some extraneous cause
that no one may divine. Charles f. TripIer,
the expert on liquid air, gives the follow
ing explanation of the explosion: The liquid
air became chemically decomposed through
exposure to the ordinary air, the nitrogen
being given off and the oxygen left; thus
when the phosphorus was placed in it oxida-
ton took place instantaneously.
One of Professor Fays assistants. William
A. Cowan, said, In liquid air the mole-
cules of oxygen are brought nearer mechan-
ically. Consequently any body brought into
close contact with IL and ignited will in
stantly undergo oxidation, resolving itself
into the original gases with explosive
Yell nh in air
not ignite. The professor made the expert
ment. as others had made it. There was
no reason that one could see for the ignit-
ing of the red phosphorus 1t is an infusible
solid, could it be made fuSible in liquid
ment."
The experiment had never been made be-
fore. The flames shot up into the pro-
fessor's face, burned off his thumb nail,
stunned him, burned specifically the face
of a student, Lincoln Burrows. scalded also
in speckS on the cheek Professor George
S. Collins, who, teaching the German lam
guage and literature, had no practical inter-
est in the experiment. There We're only
twenty professors and students in the room.
The president, David IL Cochran, was
thority of the man who regards particularly
the damage that is done, that the flames
and the explosion were not the result of any
ones negligence
The explosion had the sound in the street
of heavy girder falling from cart OH
broken. The entire building shook. hole
was burned through the laboratory table by
the flames. Fire engines came in response
to an alarm sent by one OF the frightened
students, uSeleSsiy.
Professor Fay had been turning with a
glass rod the liquid air into the red phos-
'phorus on the laboratory table. He had put
the red phosphorus at first into the glass.
filling about a. quarter of II. He had poured
the liquid air over the ps IN squa
on the table No one may tell the phases
in the accident that ensued. There had not
been in the schools history a lecture as in
teresting as the one that Professor Fay
delivered before he made his experiment.
1t had kept the attention of all the students
riveted upon him for an hour. The subject
was captivating enough 1t was liquid air,
the newest miracle of science
Professor Fay said: In our natural
philosophers an axiom is that the air that
we breathe may not be liquehed. Well.
Charles e. THRILLER has proved that even
that was not impossible. He has com
pressed eight hundred cubic feet of air into
a cubic foot of liquid. He has subjected
air to a pressure of thousands OF pounds
and placed il in liquid form at the bottom
of an uncovered tin can. That same harm
less liquid air in steel chamber is the
most powerful of agencies. He has taken a
cup of ice, poured into it this liquid with a
temperature several hundred degrees below
zero, plunged a steel rod into II, set fire to
1t with an ordinary match and melted the
steel, that mefts as. you have always
known only at excessive degrees of heat"
Professor Fay explained the mechanical
means by which Triper obtained LIQUID air
One ounce of it in an English laboratory
had cost $4,000. His work had resulted in
the practical, easy application of a newly
discovered scientific truth. There was no
difficulty or danger in handling it; provided
reasonable precaution was used and the
gases were not confined 1T could be dipped
up with tin cup and poured into any sort
dropped it would break like glass. That
was all.
The liquid air had come to the school
wrapped with felt This had been placed
I'm larger can. Over the top was a cushion
of hair felt that kept out the heat without
preventing the free escape of expanding
gases. Professor FAY in his lecture pointed
10 the can and said what the use of its
contents might be. Liquid air might be
used as cold air in houses in summer as
pure air in sick rooms, as explosive air in
bombs as motive air in balloons. The lee
turer said things that We're practical and
they sounded like fairy tales.
His experiments were not less amazing.
He dipped his finger into the liquid air for
an instant and showed that IL was dry when
he withdrew it, He threw spoonful of the
LIQUID air on his coat sleeve and the cloth
was not moistened. but so chilled that it
was white with frost. Butter in the liquid
air was reduced to fine, dry dust. an oys-
ter became hard the shell from which
It WAS extracted. Professor Fay placed half
pint OF mercury IN a paper mold ana
poured over the surface liquetied air. The
quicksilver was frozen into a rigid bar so
cold that it blistered the flesh to touch it,
He fastened weight of forty pounds to the
bar and it thawed sufficiently to let the
weight fall in fifteen minutes only.
The professor poured liquid air over alco-
hol. and soon the latter was frozen into a
snowy mass of crystals. He stirred this
mass and reduced ii to the condition of
Viscd sugar. He lifted that out with
stick, from which il hung down in an icicIe
seven or eight inches long. He poured more
liquid air over IL and Il was rigid. There
was liquid air simmering i'm a dish but the
outer surface of Ii was heavily coated with
frost. The more the liquid air boiled the
colder II was. Professor Fay intended to
display as the last experiment of his lecture
a rain of drops from test tube which
would have been simply air scalding cold"
At his home last evening, where DIR. Henry
l.. Cochran the son Of the president of the
Polytechnic SCHOOL, was IL constant attend
ance upon him. he said, conservatively. that
no explanation of the accident could he
made. Scientifically. all expressions should
be reserved. One experiment was not con-
elusive. In the one that he made only fifty
grammes of red phosphorus were used But
perhaps even red phosphorus might not un-
DER certain conditions, make a fire and an
explosion. His eyes were all infiamed, and
he was able TO see dim light
Charles =. Tripler. the maker of LIQUID air.
said last night: Phosphorus burns in air
WITH little friction. Red phosphorus Is very
infiammab Bile. This liquid air, / take ii. had
been standing for some time. All this time a
boiling process WAS going on. throwing off
the nitrogen IN the air. avinQ aIrannf nara