The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-04-29
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privileged to witness an event WIllcll
really marks an epoch IN the manu-
featuring and commercial lie OF the
city. .... .. -.
Prof. Peckham was assisted IN ms
experiments by Hefpefl A. Alillpdli u
the physics department of the English
high school. Taking long hahdlea
dipper, the lecturer dipped INTO the
can and holding in his other hand
glass vessel, he impresslVely poured
quantity of the liquid into the lumber.
1t foamed and boiled IKE polllng
water, while dense white Vapor arose
from it.
Then followed most remarkable eX-
hibition The spectators saw metals
reduced in the blush fluid to state in
which they were evidently frozen solid,
for they shattered like so much emma
when struck with hammer. They
saw ice formed in tea kettle placed
over fire hot enough to boil the water
in it, nails driven with hammer of
mercury frozen to the hardness of iron
in their sight, eggs. frozen so hard that
they Withstood the blows of q sledge
hammer rubber ball shattered like
glass after being treated with the Ii
quid air, cotton waste converted into
powerful explosive by merely soaking
in the fluid a watch spring burnt with
shower of sparks that riyalled a
Fourth of July pyrotechnic display, and
hundred other things done that, as
the lecturer said, would have con-
denned him to be burnt alive had he
lived in the days when Puritan stand
ards were in vogue.
Despite the fact that the tempera-
ture of the air in its liquid form, as 1t
was shown last evening, is over 300 de-
grees below zero. Prof. Peckham
thrust his hand into it without the least
fear. and many of the audience at the
close of the lecture We're allowed to do
so. no one receiving any hurt from the
act. 1t was. however. necessary to
ADOPT the same tactics that the candy
maker does when he sticks his hand
into hot mclasses ono remove the
member quickly before the liquid real
w had a chance to touch it, as other
wise a burn" would have resulted
worse than that CAUSED by grasping
red hot iron.
The action Of metals when dipped in
the liquid air is most interesting Some
of them, notably the toughest of iron,
we're made as brittle as glass, while
others, as copper and brass, still re-
NAMED plant. Lead was the most
peculiar of all as AZ the fearful tenn
perature Of the liquid, it lost its accus-
toned Elasticity and became elastic, a
SprIng DelnS mace OF 1t Lndt was near
IL as elastic as a finely tempered steel
one.
:. rubber ball dipped for moment in
the air was thrown to the floor, where
il smashed like an eggshell. Another
experiment which was performed for
the first time anywhere last evening,
consisted of placing Il rubber ball filled
with gas under considerable pressure,
in the LIQUID The intense cold so re-
duced the volume Of the gas inside the
ball THAI it collapsed, ard only resumed
| lis normal rotundity when 1t was re-
moved from the air and allowed to re-
acquire the atmospheric temperature.
The difference in the weights of the
constituents of air, oxygen and nitro
gen, was shown by placing the liquid
air in a bottle Of water when
the air was decomposed and the
| oxygen being heavier than the
nitrogen, was thrust down into
| tbe water in beautiful bubbles,
which Immediately rose and escaped
/ into the atmosphere being thrust up
/ nv the greater specific gravity of the
wafer
| A kettle of water placed on a char
the placing OF Hqula ar IN the l hel'i ef