The evening times., 1899-07-01
DEWAR's LIQUID HYDROGEN.
Remarkable Exhibition in n Lecture
to the Roy al Institution.
(From the London Standard.)

NfIOlH tHc LOnuOH StdNt1EuJ
The centenary celebration OF the ROYAL
Institution was appropriately ended yes
terday evening b. Prof Dewars remarka-
BILE lecture. In the course OF this he in
troduced TO general notice another in
teresting little stranger" liquid hydrogen.
This product. which till recently was
counted among the most obstinate of gases,
and refused let eyperimenters do what
they would, TO appear more than tran
sient trickle Of drops inside tube, was
successfully converted into fluid a full year
ago by Prof. Dewar in the laboratory Of the
Royal Institution But to iiquefy a gas
in a specially prepared apartment with all
the necessary apparatus at hand, is one
thing, TO bring il before the eyes OF all
audience in a lecture theatre is quite an
other; and this is triumph behtting an
occasion when the members OF the Royal
Institution were celebrating their found
ers and first teachers, among them thai
great chemist, Sir Humphry Davy-
Last night. 10 use his own words Prof
DeWar introduced TO the lecture room a
new agent of research-iiquid hydrogen.
As is well known. the task of obtaining
this gas in a fluid condition has been eX-
CeptiOnally difficult. Liquid air. the pro-
duction Of which comparatively lately as
founded the world, is now made by me
quart. Some months ago 1t cost no more
IH%H q SOC- CLldil!gd5LIC- anu nov A4Ck'GAN u
savans are talking of producing II almost
as cheaply as ale. But liquid hydrogen. as
the professor remarked. is quite another
affair; il Is very costly TO manufacture and
very difficult to keep. as 1t IS extremely
volatile. Radiation must be checked as
far as possible, and so the office OF pre-
venting hydrogen from again vanishing
into gas is assigned TO liquid air. That,
in fact was constituted its iaiier- Thus
rr..y"H
ceptacle and shown in tube to the audi
ences.
The temperature OF liquid ozone is ex-
traordinarily low. 1t was specified with
a light dust which was nothing else than
the frcZen air which accidentally gained
admission. Oxygen, sealed up in a tube
and immersed, speedily became solid But
this fluid is so light that cork sinks in it
like stone. The temperature of its boil
/ ing pCint-that is. the temperature al
which it passes back into the state OF gas
is almost ipcOnceivabiy low. only Z de-
grees above the absolute zero. This is the
! lowest point which the experimenter has
yet been able 10 reach. We think % degrees
below the zero of our Fahrenheit scale to
be rather surprising, but the liquid hydro
gen in the tube exhibited at the Royal In
stituticn was mere than go degrees below
that zero. Life in Such temperature
would be impossible. The human body
would be petrifed, like the lapiIiied folk
in the Arabian story. Motion, like in the
ordinary sense Ct the term. would be i'm
! possible This or something like it, is
the temperature of space. 50 far as this
! phrase has any meaning. Where no matter
/ is, there heat is impossible, and though a
! something may be present in space which
can transmit light, ii cannot translate the
| later into heat But here, in the lecture
| room, is exhibited liquid almost as cold
as the vacuity OF space.
The possibilities of this discovery are
great Prof Dewar showed how, b. the
use of liquid hydrogen, an almost perfect
| vacuum could be produced. But. how
| ever, this may be. the centenary OF the
| Royal Institution has been closed By an
| experimental triumph; by a result which
| is in itself worthy first fruit of the mu-
nificence of DIR. Ludwig Mond. founder OF
| the new laboratory, and proof CT the skill
with which research has been fostered By
! the managers and supporters Of that in
| stitution.