The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1899-03-16
WONDERFUL DISCOVERY
SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENTS WITH
LIQUID AIR.
Inventor TripIer Demonstrates the
Powers and Possibilities of This
Marvellous Substance Steamships
and Locomotives Relieved of the
Necessity of Carrying Coal, Will be
Enabled to Make Their Own Fuel
philadelphia Record.)

experiments with liquid air, so
long a curiosity in the scientific
world, have been largely conducted
of late with view to the utilization
of the atmosphere as power-yield-
ing substance. What high pressure
steam is to water, ordinary atmos-
pheric air is to liquid air-except that
the ratio of pressure is far greater
The current scientific problem is to
produce liquid air SO cheaply and in
such abundance that the energy
liberated by its transformation under
proper conditions into normal state
may be used in all the mechanical
processes which now require steam
pressure. From a mere toy of the
laboratory, liquid air at tempera-
ture of 3l2 degrees below zero is to
be exalted to the high and dominant
position of the worlds greatest power
agent, supplanting steam and cleo
tricity as completely as these forces
have driven out other artificial
methods of evolving and applying
mechanical force.
Whether this glowing prospect
shall ever be realized or not, the prac-
tical field for the use of liquid air is
broad and alluring enough to engage
the earnest efforts of scientific expert
mentists in every civilized country;
and, naturally enough, American
skill and genius have thus far pro-
duced the most noteworthy results
in this new branch of scientific in
quiry. In the laboratory of Charles
+. Tripler, in New York city, there
has been installed plant for lique-
flying air which makes the once pre-
cious fluid at the rate of fifty gallons
a day, at cost of not more than
twenty cents q gallon. The first
ounce of liquid air made by Professor
Dewar, in England, cost $1,000; and
when he had succeeded in producing
it at an outlay of $500 a pint the
achievement was regarded by the
scientific world as a veritable triumph.
But Dewar used costly gases and ex-
pensive apparatus; whereas the Trip
ler process employs only air itself,
under heavy pressure, to make liquid
air. The material is the cheapest
conceivable; the supply is unlimited,
and the process of manufacture COM
paratively simple. According to a
description of the Tripler method in
the current issue of Nc Clure's Maga-
zine the inventor has already sue
ceeded in producing ten gallons Of
liquid air by the use of three gallons
in his liquid air engine. Clearly, if
this astonishing ratio of surplusage
could be exhibited and maintained on
a large scale the new power would
speedily usurp the industrial field, to
the exclusion of all other earlier
agents for creating and transmitting
controllable force.
1t is this singular element of in
creasing and almost costless produc-
tion which invests the Tripler expert
ments with more than ordinary in
terest at this time, when the climax
to have been attained, and the entire
manufacturing world is eagerly await
ing the development of new and
cheaper source Of energy. Coal sup
plies, however vast, are limited in
extent; while the atmosphere is prac-
tically eternal and infinite. Has Mr..
Tripler hit upon the long concealed,
tremendous secret of costless and
limitless power? Will the ocean liner
nor boilers, the locomotive no fire
box, water tank or tender; the great
iron works no batteries of boilers and
relays of mighty steam engines?
Without heavy machinery, storage
batteries or fuel reservoirs, shall the
aeronaut of the Twentieth Century
glide through space, taking his power
from the surrounding air on his way?
These dazzling possibilities, with all
their multiform and implied develop
ments, are involved in the success or
failure of the attempts to place the
production of liquid air upon a sound
| commercial basis. The civilized
world would be transformed, indeed,
if mankind should learn at last to
rely upon the heat of the normal at
| mosphere as an exhaustless source of
mechanical power!
There is nothing mysterious in the
operation OF Mr.. Tripler's device for
producing liquid air in large quanti-
ties, no appeal to unknown forces, no
Juggling with storage machines, no
necessity for a new vocabulary Of
scientific jargon. The power he
develops and uses is in reality the
heat of the sun-the source Of all
energy in our corner of the universe,
| whether pervading the atmosphere or
stored up as coal.
AS explained by the inventor, the
intense cold needed for the initial
production of liquid air is persistent;
so that the pressure of the compress
ing engine may be materially re-
duced while liquefaction proceeds
unabated. $50 great does the cold
actually become" says Mr.. Tripler.
THAT the external air rushing in to
fill the vacuum caused by liquefaction
is itself liquetied." In other words,
the output of liquid air remains as
large as ever, while very much less
is required to keep the compressor
engine going. This strange phe-
nomenon in the practically unknown
region OF very low temperature
affords basis for further investiga-
tion which may lead to momentuous
results. 1t seems like the very
border land and outpost of new
domain of science, the beginning OF
new industrial earth.
From the article above mentioned.
by Ray Stannard Baker, the following
extract is taken:
l saw Mr.. Tripler admit q quart or
more of the liquid air into small
engine. A few seconds later the
piston began to jump vigorously,