The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-04-29
Wonders of Liquid
Air Demonstrated
by Prof. Peckham.
PASSES ALL BELIEF
Metals Frozen Solid and
Shattered Like So Much
China When Struck.

A crowd that was in inverse ratio
to the excellence of the lecture attend
ed the demonstration given last night
| in MECHANICS hall of the properties OF
LIQUID air, by Prof. William Clark
Peckham of Adelphi college, Brooklyn
N. Y. The audience, however, was one
of very high grade, and was extreme
ly appreciative of the wonders of sci
ence that were shown by Prof. Peck
ham. Among the listeners were no.
ticed some of the best known men OF
the city in commercial and scientific
pursuits, among them being many
prominent manufacturers and a major
ity of the faculties of the educational
institutions of Worcester The faculty
of the Polytechnic institute were pres
ent almost without exception.
The lecturer was introduced by Dan
1iel Gay, the well-known insurance
agent who explained his presence in
that capacity by humorously saying
| that Principal Abercrombie of Worces-
ter academy, who was to have intro
duced the speaker, was engaged at a
meeting of the license commissioners
4 which event was of much more vital
| Importance to him.
In beginning his lecture, Prof. Peck
| ham said.
Every one is familiar with the order
of nature around us. We know water
as either ice, water or steam; we knox
iron as a solid only; quicksilver as q
| liquid only, and oxygen as a gas only
and we think of these things as if they
could not be otherwise; they become
marvellous to us only when they pre-
sent themselves in unusual forms; as
the Latin proverb says, "Omne igno-
tum pro mirifico," which may be ex-
| pressed in the vernacular-What one
does not know. is remarkable.
Liquid air was first produced in the
year 1877 by Faraday, the famous
/ scientist, in England, and Pictet in Ge-
neVa almost simultaneously eacn
working without the knowledge Of the
| other. In the making of liquid air, two
conditions are necessary, the presence
of low temperature and high pressure
| If the degree of cold be sufficient, lid
uid air can be produced with very little
pressure, but no degree of pressure
without the presence of cold Will liqui-
lfy the life-giving gas. Air is iiquified
| at the present time by one of two
methods, the latter of which is the one
used by Mr.. Tripler in his present Sc
ries of experiments.
The first method in brief is as fol-
lows: A substance that will boil at a
temperature relatively high to the boil
ing point of air, which is the tempera-
ture at which air in a liquid form
changes to a gas, and is about 3l2 de-
4 grees below zero Fahrenheit, is placed
in a tube and in this tube is immersed
another tube filled with a substance
| that boils at h. Still lower temperature
In this second tube is placed tuoe
containing the air to be liquitled AL
| these substances are then placed I'M
der pressure and the vapors removed by
powerful air pumps and made 10 cir
culate between the tubes. The result
of this is that the air III the inner tube
becomes a liquid.
1.-The method of Mr.. Tripler is to use
a triple cylinder straight line compress
or driven by a so horse power engine
| into which the atmospheric air TO DC
| liquified is introduced. The first Of the
! cylinders congresses the air to about
| so pounds per square inch, the seconc
to about 800 and the third to about 250O
The cylinders are surrounded by water
Jackets. by means of which the heal
is removed from the air to large eX'
| tent. From the compressor the ar SUI
under the final pressure goes to the ap'
paratus, which is the original and VITA
| feature of Mr.. Tripler's apparatus
This is yeritable pipe about 10 inc9eF
in diameter and rs feet in height. In
side this is spiral brass pipe Of very
great strength The air from the com
pressor is introduced at the top OF TINS
brass pipe and a certain portion OF
| is allowed to escape through a needle
valve at the lower end. This air does
not escape into the atmosphere, put II
| held inside the larger part.
1t is by this means made cool as Il
| flows through the very small hole o.
the valve, and as it rises inside the
| large pipe surrounding the small one
it also makes the air in that cooler. rms
in turn escaping, is made still cooler
and cools the contents of the brass
pipe still more. Thus by sort Of end
less chain process, the air in the prasS
| tube becomes very cold, finally reaches
the temperature at which air becomes
liquid and is reduced to a fluid like
water which flows out of the needle
valve and is collected for use
| At this point Prof. Peckham begar
| his demonstrations. Calling the atten'
| ton of the audience to large bundle
swathed in paper and carefully tiet
with ropes, which rested on the plat
| form, he remarked: Il have here sew
| eral gallons OF the wicked air Oh Mail
haitian, which has lured so many
young men to their destruction, boil
! for this and the next world. 1t was
| collected this morning, and for th'
| first time in all history l now liberatt
! the atmosphere of Gotham in tn
scholarly precincts of Worcester"
! Suiting the action to the word, HI
removed the outer wrappings of thu
| package and exhibited an ordinary til
tank like a big kerosene can wrapped
in felt several inches thick, and on re
moving the cover a thin steam lik'
vapor was seen to arise, which was tn
evaporation of the subtle and wonder
| full fluid with which the can was filled
| The audience broke into prolonged ap
plause, recognizing That it had beel