The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-27
THE WORLDS COOLEST COLD.
MACHINE WHICH REDUCES AIR TO
LIQUID AND THEN FREEZES 1T.

NAN'F ~ AaoN va NAAt
s12 Degrees Below Zero, Feels ON
Mans Hand-Freezes Pure Al
cOhOl and Mercury-COnhned, Ii
ExpIOdes More Terrible Than Nj
tro-GIycerine, Hut 1t May lie Pour
ed Out Like Water, Although 1t Is
Not Wet-If Left Standing IL VAN
ishes Like Magician Egg Dropped
in IL Becomes as Hard as Rock
Crystal, "A Beefsteak CrumhIexlLiLe
Cracker.
New York Feb. 24.-only one substance
in the world has not been frozen. When
science has succeeded in producing cold
intense enough to freeze that single re-
naming gas, helium, a close idea can be
formed OF what the world would be with
out heat
Heium is the highest of all known sub
stances. II is lighter even than hydrogen
and so evanescent that 1t was not until
recent years that chemists knew of Its ex-
istence. 1t Is found in the deep crevices
of the earth where II has been confined
through all the ages. If it were permitted
to escape into the outer atmosphere II
NCutU lliihliCfaidtSiS nv away INTO space ava
disappear. Hydrogen gas which isynext
in order of lightness, has recently been re-
duced from gas to a liquid substance ny
Erof. John Dewar of England-an achieve
n'ent as remarkable in the realm of scicnce
as the disco cry of the North Poe woald
be in expiration.
Indeed, The effort to produce low temper
atures is much like Arctic exploration.
Scientists have gone downward slowly
TtsaACaptnr 90
ting nearer 10 the North Pole of ampeI-
allure. Continental experimenters have
WED with Englsmen. and Englismen have
We'd with Americans: but we can take
pride in the fact that none of them has
been as successful in the field as Charlas
T.. Tiipler of New York city. who !s able
10 pfu.iGca a greater degree of cold for a
imtgcr period of time than any other OK
perimentor.
l visited MI. Tripler's laboratory not
long since. and he explained to me for the
first time his coFd-producing machine, by
means of which he reduces The ordinary
air of his work room, no matter how warm
1t may be, to liquid that looks not Unlike
water, although it is not wet. This liquid
IS co celd that It actCally burns like al r-l
hot iron. ard il boils as violently when
placed on a block of ice as water on q rcd
not stove.e Mr.. Tripler also showed re
curious. aaPeX substance somewhat re-
see" bling haIf crystalzed sugar syrup.
When the World Is Block OF Ice.
Wonderful as IL Is to sc ice that is made
of air 1t is not so wonderful as Mr. Trip
les story of the meanging of this phenome
non. He tells how at some remote age In
the future, all of the atmosphere which
we now breathe will fall in drops of liquid
just such as he produces on his labora-
n,lr q
viii form on the earth much resembling
the present lakes and oceans of water.
when the earth grows so cold that the
air is liquefled," Mr.. Tripler continued 'of
course all the water on the earth will long
ago have been frozen solid. Indeed, 1t
will be as hard as rock crystal and not
unlike that substance In color and texture.
After the air is in the form of lakes or
oceans, the cold will continue to increase
until they In turn are frozen hard After
that the hydrogen, helium and possibly
some other very light gases, of which we
may now have no knowledge, viii fall in
the form of rain and then the world win
be absolutely dead and inert, frozen as
the MOON"
This entire process of the universe ia
typifed. in Mr.. Tripler's laboratory where
every degre of temperature from the heat
of steam boiler nearly down to the cold
Of interesting space can be produced at
any time.
Until a few years ago. AL scientists be-
Iieved that there were what they called
permanent gases''-that is, gases which
could not be liquefied. Some of the best
experimenters had tried COMPRISING the
two gases which compose our air (ozy-
gen and nitrogen) under thousands of
pounds to the square inch, all TO no re-
suit. They also tried heating them In re-
verberatory furnaces and cooling them to
the greatest known depths of cold, but
they still remained gases. Finally the idea
of combining immense pressure with great
cold, occurred to a French savant, and one
day he astonished the entire world of
science by exhibiting a few drops of a
clear transparent liquid-liquid oxygen.
An English experimental who followed
him, produced a whole wine glass full of
liquid air, but 1t cost him about 5000.
Wonderful Commercial Uses of Liq-
uid Air.
Now, Mr. Tripler, the American Inven-
tor, has succeeded in building a machine
which will produce liquid air in very large
quantities at an expense so law that 1t
may be said to cost nothing at all. nFrom
a mere laboratory curiosity this marvel
Gus substance has suddenly given prom
ise of almost unlimited commercial uses
so that those who know say that ID must
soon rival electricity IN the variety OF It's
adaptations Ships will run with 1t, guns
will fire with 1t, IL will be used as a mo-
tive power for operating locomotives and
automobiles and in driving great manu-
featuring concerns. MIR. Tripler evens pre-
diets that by the agency of liquid air.
practical aerial navigation is assured. The
problem which has hitherto defeated the
purposes of aerial naugators has been the
difficulty of producing a propellng ma
chine sufficiently light and yet strong
enough. to keep the propeller in motion
Liquid air requires no boilers nor fuel nor
smokestacks. and the machinery neces-
sary 10 its use will be a mere feathers
weight compared with the ordinary steam
engine.
Process of hquefaction.
The principle of the liquefaction of air
and all other gases is exceedingly simple
When a gas is compressed. 1t gives out
heat-that is well-known fact In physics
When this pressure is removed, the
gas must take up from somewhere the heat
which is gave out. After a series Of ex-