Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-06-05

I gwen III w tSulhSluA was NllneSSeu
at the Arlington. Hotel few nights ago
by the scientific circle of the city,
members OF the Cabinet, Supreme
Court, Diplomatic Corps and other
public men. 1t was given under the
auspices of the National Geographical
Society, presided over by Professor
Bell, the inventor of the telephone,
and furnished an opportunity for
Charles i. Tripler, of New York. to
show for the first time in public the
new motive power which he has dis
covered and calls liquid air.
Briefly and simply stated, Mr.. Trip
Ter takes 800 gallons of ordinary air
drawn from any window and by COM
preston and cold reduces it to one
gallon of liquid that looks like
glycerine and retains its form at a tenn
perature of 312 degrees below zero.
AS it warns it expands into vapor and
then into air, just as water is ex-
panded into steam by heat. By con-
trolling this expansion Mr.. Tripler
proposes to furnish a new motive
power for the use of transportation
companies on sea and on land, for
factories, furnaces and for every other
purpose for which steam and electricity
are now used. The expansive force is
equal to 1000 pounds square inch,
and without an exhaust pipe the pres
sure is so great that there is now no
material OF sufficient strength to re-
strain it. In other words, pint or
quart or a gallon Of this liquid will
burst any vessel in which it may be
confined unless there is an opportunity
for its gradual escape.
Liquid air is manufactured by ap-
paratus which Mr.. Tripler has in
vented. The first gallon or two is
made by the use OF coal or any other
ordinary fuel, just as ice is made in q
factory, but thereafter he is able to
reproduce ten gallons OF the fluid by
the expenditure Of two. A railway
locomotive or a steamship will there
fore create its cwn power from the
atmosphere as it passes along its way,
and factory engineer will simply
turn the key Of ventilation oipe,
start his machine and manufacture
fuel as he needs - Mr.. Tripler in
sists that his energy can be used with
no more difficulty and at cost seventy
per cent. less than steam, and, having
mastered the secret of its production,
he now proposes to apply it to prac.
tical use.
Mr. Tripler brought six gallons OF
liquid air with him from New York,
and in the presence of four or five
hundred persons performed the ex.
periments that are described in Nc
Clure's Magazine. He dipped the
stuff out of his can with an ordinary
tin dipper, just as milkman woul(
dip milk. He dropped potato in it
lifted it out in two or three minute,
and threw it on the floor. where il
s broke into thousand little crystals
He took rubber ball. immersed it il
, the liquid and then broke it as if i
was glass. He dropped in a piece o
beefsteak and in a moment it wa
Y broken into little fragments tha
/ looked like petrifed wood He i'm
. mersed tumbler of alcohol, and in
few minutes it was frozen into blocl
of ice. He filled a pasteboard bo.
with mercury, which when immerse,
in the liquid air became rs hard a
t steel, and he used it as hammer t.
/ drive nails in the table. He immerset
+ copper, tin, iron and strips of steel i,
the liquid air, and they crumbled lik
piecrust. He demonstrated the ex
l pansive power of the liquid in simila
0 manner, and altogether performed ex
n perrin ents that were not only move
but amazing.
U The liquefaction of air is one of tht
It scientific achievements of the las
= quarter century. In the first success
full experiments only few drops c
liquid air were obtained, but six O
y seven years ago the British scientist
n Professor James Dewar, demonstrate
g that it could be produced in quantity
q The expense, however, was enormou
"a pint costing about $4,000. Nh
d Tripler declares that he has produce
J. gallons of liquid air at cost of abou
T. twenty cents gallon. He furthe
J.. claims that liquid air can be used t
uoka Iiouid oir in lnroar cuont;+;a.