The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-05-09
LIQUID AIR EXPERIMENTS
PROCESS OF REDUCTION AND THE
RESULTS THAT ARE OBTAINED.

Mr.. Tripler's Method of Producing
Liquid with Almost the Same Specific
Gravity as Water.
For many years scientific men had
believed that not only the air, but 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
this was done with sulphurous oxide,
the bad-smelling gas which results
from burning a sulphur match. This
gas takes only a pressure of about for
ty pounds to the square inch to reduce
it to liquid FORM or to be brought to
the zero temperature of the Fahren-
heit thermometer to produce the same
result. Carbonic acid gas was one of
the next of these invisible and almost
intangible substances to be brought to
liquid form, and this soon afterward
was actually frozen into silvery snow,
which would retain this form for long
time in the open air.
With this carbonic acid snow many
interesting experiments We're 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 a LIQUID form required a pres
sure of eight hundred pounds to the
square inch at ordinary temperatures
and pressure of five hundred and
twenty-five pounds to the inch even
when the temperature of the gas is re-
duced to the freezing point of water.
At seventy degrees below zero the car
bonic acid gas becomes transparent ice.
The liquefied gas turns back into it's
gaseous form at once when the pres
sure upon 1t is removed, and therefore
1t could not be used in that form for
experiments. BY letting a stream of
the gas escape through the meshes of a
wooden bag the carbonic acid snow
could be produced and gathered in large
quantities. The gas. as it expanded,
demanded and drew heat from all about
it, and in the absence of heat equiva-
lent to it's enlargement in form the tenn
perature of the gas fell until consid-
cradle part of it was frozen by the rest
and caught in the meshes of the bag.
The temperature of this snow is new
er higher than eighty-five degrees be-
low zero, and the constant but slow
evaporation which takes place from its
exposed surface reduces this to about
| one hundred and twenty-five degrees
below zero. BY mixing this snow with
either, a more rapid evaporation was
| produced, and this reduced the temper
| ature of the mixture twenty-five de-
| grees lower, to one hundred and fifty
below zero. Until liquefied air was pro-
duced in large quantities this was the
! lowest temperature which could be pro-
duced and held for any appreciable
| time for experimental purposes. But
to-day we are able to liquefy air, to
turn it into aloud which seems as
| stable as water and as limpid and
| harmless, and yet this simple-l looking
material is so cold that IL some of the
| frozen carbonic acid gas be thrown
| into it, with its temperature of one
| hundred and fifty degrees below zero
| it would set the air to boiling violent
| ly, and there would be a greater diff
| ference in their temperatures than
| there Is between the Croton water as
we draw it from the tap and the boil
| no ta> wa, tao
| To liquefy air it must be reduced tc
1-71S part of its original bulk, or to a
temperatureof three hundred and one
degrees below zero. If it were at
tempted to liquefy the air by direct
pressure, it would take nearly clever
| thousand pounds to the square inch tt
| accomplish this. Professor Dewar Of
| England first succeeded in producing
| liquefied air about three years ago
| TIe used a combination of pressures
| and refrigerations, but he was able tC
secure only small quantities Of this in.
teresting liquid. Mr.. Charles e. Trip.
| producing liquid air in large quaint
ties, and this he has supplied freely t.
Columbia college and other scientifi,
institutions for experimental purposes
| besides giving many interesting exhi
billions of it himself. Mr.. Trip1er ha:
not made the details of his liquefyint
machine public, but it is pretty wei
known how it works. Mr.. Tripler be
gins the compression of the air b,
using an air pump, driven by twent,
horse power steam engine. Thi
squeezes the air down to a pressure o
perhaps $500 to 5000 pounds to tn
square inch. In this state it flow
through a coiled tube under water
where the heat made manifest by com
preston is taken away by flowing wa
ter. After this little of the coolet
air is allowed to escape through pin
hole into a long, small copper tube
while other parts of the air are allowed
to escape and expand about the out
side of the tube, in a space incloset
with a thick non-conducting covering
Gradually the temperature of the al
within the tube is reduced, until a
last it settles into the lower end of tn
tube as liquid and Is drawn off a
will be the turning of stopcock. A
the liquid air is drawn off it resemble
SKINNED milk in color and consistency
The milky look is due to the gaseou
impurities which the free air had con
|