The silver lance., 1899-04-14
LI0UEFIED AIR NOW
-ur LATEST GREAT MARVEL.
n. Msds IT . Small s>t an. H..
No Limit for Utili'J- ;aJ suPPAAn
s,..m and Electricity.

and EteCtriCsty.
Tho most extraordinary exhibit ever
r,ven in Washington was witnessed at
tha Arlington hotel a few nights ago
~ the scientific circle of the city,
CAMPERS of the Cabinet Supreme
Court. diplomatic csrps and other pub
liz men. 1t was given under the aus
nices of the National Geographical So
ciety. presided over by Professor Bell,
she inventor of the telephone and fur
nished an opportunity for Charles E.
Tripler Of New York to show for the
frst time in public the new motive
mower which he has discovered and
calls liquid air. A description of this
remarkable fluid and its uses appears
in McClures Magazine for March, and
q more elaborate account Is given in
the April Century.
Briefly and simply stated, Mr.. Trip
Ter takes 800 gallons of ordinary air,
drawn from any window, and by COM
nression and cold reduces it to one
Gallon of liquid that looks like gly-
cerne and retains its form at tenn
.perature of 312 degrees below zero.
AS ii warns it expands into vapOr and
then into air, just as water is expand
cd into steam by heat. BY controlling
this expansion Mr.. Tripler proposes to
furnish a new motive power for the
use of transportation companies on sea
and land, for factories. furnaces and
for every other purpose for which
steam and electicity are now used. The
expansive force Is equal to 1000
pounds a square inch, and without an
exhaust pipe the pressure is SO great
that there is now no material of suffi-
cient strength to restrain it. In other
IL ,trnt arf or. -
this liquid will burst any vessel In
which it may be confined unless there
is an opportunity for its gradual es-
cape.
Liquid air is manufactured by ap-
paratus which Mr.. Tripler has invent
ed. The first gallon or two is made by
the use of coal or any other ordinary
fuel, just as ice is made in a factory.
but thereafter he is able to reproduce
ten gallons of the fluid by the expendi-
ture of two. A railway locomotive or
a steamship will, therefore, create its
own power from the atmosphere as it
passes along its way, and a factory
engineer will simply turn the key Of a
ventilation pipe. start his machine and
manufacture fuel as he needs it, Mr..
Tripler insists that this energy can be
used with no more difficulty and at
COSt ~ per ttut. ltSS tldu stedll, anu,
having mastered the secret Of its pro-
duction, he now proposes to apply it
to practical use.
Mr.. Tripler brought six gallons Of
liquid air with him from New York.
and in the presence of four or five hun
ded persons performed the experiments
that are described in McClure's Maya
zine. He dipped the stuff out of his
can with an ordinary tin dipper, just
as milkman would dip milk. He
dropped a potato in it, lifted it out in
two or three minutes and threw 1t on
the floor. where 1t broke into a thou
sand little crystals. He took a rubber
bali, immersed 1t in the liquid and
then broke it as If it was glass. He
dropped in piece of beefsteak and in
a moment it was broken into little
fragments that looked like petrified
wood. He immersed a tumbler Of al
cohol, and in few minutes it was
frozen into a block of ice. He filled a
pasteboard box with mercury, which
when immersed in the liquid air be-
came as hard as steel, and he used 1t
as hammer to drive nails in the ia
bic. He immersed copper. tin. iron and
strips Of steel in the liquid air. and
they crumbled like piecrust. He dem
0nstrated the expansive power Of the
liquid in similar manner, and alto
gether performed experiments that
were not only novel but amazing