The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-05-15
A RIvAL ToR ICE TRUsrs.

The hqueGaction of air is no longer the
dream Of scientists; it is an accomplished
fact, and gallons of the liquid are being
produced in the laboratory of Mr. TripIer.
in New York, every day. Up TO this time,
however. the demonstration has beer
more of a laboratory triumph than any
thing else. No method of producing the
liquid at a cost which would make it avail
able for commercial purposes has yet been
perfected. though ii is promised that a
plant now in process of construction in
New York will be in operation probably
by the later part of this month, when, if
the aims Of The inventor are reached, IL
quid air will be~ produced more cheaply
than and as easily as ice is made. And
it is the purpose of Che inventor in aues-
ton, young man of the name of Ostra-
ger to bring liquid air into the market in
competition with ice.
Mr.. Tripler, concerning whose inventions
and wonderful experiments with liquid air
we have printed several articles, uses an
apparatus in which an initial pressure of
1000 pounds 10 the square inch is neces-
sary to the hquefacton of the air. Os-
TRACER, who is said TO be an inventor of
ability, has invented an apparatus of diff
ferent pattern which, it is claimed, will
perform the same functions with an Initial
pressure of eco pounds to the square inch.
II will readily appear from this statement
that the latter apparatus can be operated
much more cheaply than the former Mr..
Ostrager has been able to convince several
capitalists of the correctness of his ex-
periments and deductions, and they have
furnished him with money to build a $780,
900 plant, which will be finished during the
latter part of this month, when a number
of scientific experts will inspect and study
-.
1t is the purpose of Mr.. Ostrager and his
friends, if the apparatus performs what
is expected of it, to go at once into the
market with liquid air as a refrigerating
agent Its temperature, it will be recall
ed, is Sl2 degrees below zero. Ii is to be
placed in jars covered partially with A
fine film from which tube will extend.
permitting a slow and safe evaporation
of the liquid air. The jars are to be de-
ivered TO hotels residences and elsewhere
that a cooling agent is desired, and they
may be placed inside refrigerators or ice
boxes just as lump of ice is. The cost,
it is believed, win be less than
the cost of quantity of ice
necessary to perform similar SER
vice. The liquid air, meantime, would be
not only cooling but a purifying agent in
the refrigerator. All impurities are re-
moved from the air in the process of
liquefaction, hence the pure oxygen, hydro
gen and ozone that would be liberated in
the refrigerator in the process of evapora-
ton would absorb the impurities in the
chamber.
There is, to be sure an element of doubt
| about the perfect success of Ostrager's APP
| paratus, and the ice trusts may not be
threatened with serious competition on
the part of liquid air makers this year; but
il seems altogether probable that the time
is not far distant when the newly discov-
cred liquid viii be made available for gen.
eral use as a cooling agent. and probably
also as a motor power.