Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1899-07-20
LIQUID AIR FOR TABLE.
Likely soon to be Served in Cans Like
Milk.


air will soon be put on the market at
very moderate prices. The practical
| householder, therefore, Is already be-
ginning to ask questions.
"Of what use will ii be to me?" he
queries. why should pay money for
cans of air, liquid or other? 1t is very
curious and interesting, no doubt, but
what can | do with it? And isn't 1t
dangerous stuff anyhow to have about
the house,"
! To answer these very natural ques-
tons as fully as possible, yet briefly
and in plain language, is the purpose
OF this article.
Only home uses will be considered,
and even Of these scarcely half can be
indicated. If there is any limit to the
ultimate possibilities of liquid air the
writer hasn't yet discovered it.
First, how VIII it be supplied, how
long can it be kept, and is it safe to
handle?
1t will be brought to your house,
like milk or settler water, in protected
cans containing any desired quantity
from quart or two up to twenty or
thirty gallons. The style of the cans
will doubtless vary The simplest
are nothing more than tin cylinders,
closed at the bottom but open at the
top and heavily felted
In these liquid air can be kept about
twenty-four hours. You can dip it
out as wanted with an ordinary long
handled tin diqper. IT, however, you
should drop the dpper just after
using It would would shatter like thin
glass when it struck the floor With
a ladle of copper or aluminium this lit
tie accident could not occur, as these
metals are not made brittle by cold.
BY the use of more elaborate yes
sels-some of which have already been
tested and patented liquid air can
be kept for a number of days. From
these it is drawn off by a sort of
spigot. 1t can be sent by rail and
delivered at distant points.
Liquid air is as safe to handle as
boiling water, and requires about the
same precautions Here extremes
meet. Intense cold burns like heat
and liquid air has even been used to
cauterize ulcers.
Yet you need not fear to touch it,
You may thrust your hand into a basin
Of 1t with perfect safety, just as you
may touch hot iron with your moisten-
ed finger, provided the hand is in
stantly withdrawn. If spilled on your
clothes it will not harm even the fin
est fabrics.
But never venture to put liquid air
in your mouth--if you wish to live
And in taking up dish containing 1t
use a handkerchief or holder of some
sort, exactly as if it were hot
In another respect liquid air is like
boiling water. 1t must not be confined
Plug ND your teakettle and it will
soon burst If the plugged kettle
contained liquid air it would do the
same thing even though set upon a
block of ice. for this strange stuff is
always boiling and you can't prevent
it.
BE careful also not to wet cotton
waste OF duA Olutl lOtHtt tDilDlSlADle
substance with this fluid. Such a mix
ture is violently explosive. though
only until the liquid gas has evapo-
rated: and it will not explode unless
fire is put to it.
These +binss remembered 1fouid air
is more innocent Than snrinq wafer
Ir a canfnl were unset on vorr nar1or
carpet there would be no harm done.
And now. assuming that two
gallon can has been delivered at your
door. what can YOU do with it9
or course the most obvious use Is
for cooling things-any sort of re-
friseration.
a bawIful set in your refrigerator
win do all the work of q big cake Of
ice. but much better II Will growv
waste away. but the product is no
thing but alr-and cold. It is alb
solutely dry. there will be no drip.
In fact. any closet or cupboard can be
used as a refrigerator With LIQUID air
only # viii waste little faster