Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-03-26
'l|QuD AIR
TIE COOLEST COLD
YET KNOWN 70
SCIENTISTS.
Air Freezes at a Teperalure OF
3l2 Degrees Below
Zero.

Only one SUBS lance IN the WOIlQ mas
not been frozen. When science has
succeeded in producing cold intense
enough to freeze that single remaining
gas, helium, close idea can be formed
of what the world would be without
heat.
Helium is the lightest of all known
substances. 1t is lighter even than
hydrogen and SO evanescent that it was
not until recent years that chemists
knew of its existence. 1t is found in
the deep crevices OF the earth, where
it has been confined through all the
ages. Ii it were permitted to escape
into the outer atmosphere, it would i'm
mediately fly away into space and dis
appear. Hydrogen gas, which is next
in order of lightness, has recently been
reduced from gas to a liquid substance
by Prof John Dewar, of England-an
achievement as remarkable in tie realm
Of science as the discovery OF the North
Pole would be in exploration.
Indeed, the effort 10 produce low tenn
peratures is much lige arctic eXplora-
ton. Scientists have gone downward
slowly, discovering method after meth
Cd for getting nearer to the North Pole
Of temperature. Continental expert
mentors have We'd with Engllshmen,
and Englishmen have wed with Amerl-
cans; but we can take pride in the fact
that none Of them has been as success
full in the field as Charles E. Tripler,
of New York City, who is able to pro-
duce a greater degree Of cold for a
longer period Cf time than any other eX-
perimenter.
| visited Mr.. Tripler's laboratory not
long since, and he explained to me for
the first time his cold-producing ma
chine, by means of which he reduced
ordinary air of his work room, no mat
ter how warm it may be, to a LIQUID
that looks not unlike water, although it
is not wet. This liquid is so cold that
it actually burns like red hot iron,
and it bofls as violently when placed on
block OF ice as water on red not
stove. Mr.. Tripler also showed me
how he freezes this liquid air into air.
ice, curious, faky substance some
what resembling half crystallized sugar
syrup.
WHEN THE WORLD is A BLOCK OF
ICE.
Wonderful as it is to see ice that is
made Of air it is not so wonderful az
Mr.. Tripler's story of the meaning or
this phenomenon. He tells how at
some remote age in the future all of the
atmosphere which we now breathe will
fall in drops of liquid, just such as he
produces in his laboratory, and great
lakes and oceans Of air will form on
the earth, much resembling the present
lakes and oceans of water.
When the earth grows so cold that
the air is liqueied," Mr.. Tripler con-
tinueS, "of course all the water on the
earth will long ago have been frozen
solid. Indeed, it will be as hard as
rock crystal and not unlike that sub
stance in color and texture. After the
air is all in the form of lakes or oceans,
the cold will continue to increase until
they in turn are frozen hard. After
that the hydrogen, helium and possibly
some other very light gases, OF which
we may now have no knowledge, will
fall in the form Of rain, and then the
world will be absolutely dead and inert,
frozen as hard as the moon
This entire process of the universe
is typifed in Mr.. Tripler's laboratory, |
where every degree of temperature
from the heat Of steam boiler nearly |
down to the cold of interstellar space
Until few years ago all scientists |
believed that there were what they |
called permanent gasses"-that is, |
gases which could not be liquefied. |
Some of the best eXperimenters had /
tried COMPRISING the two gases which !
composed our air (oXypen and nitro |
gem under thousands of pounds to the |
square inch, all to no result. They ]
also tried heating them in reverDer- /
atory furnaces and cooling them to the 4
greatest known depths of cold, but they |
still remained gases. Finally the idea /
of combining immense pressure with !
great cold occurred to French savant, /
and one day he astonished the entire !
world of science by exhibiting few /
drops of a clear, transparent liquid /
LIQUID oxygen. An English expert |
menter who followed him produced a |
whole wineglasful of liquid air, but 1t |
cost him about $4,000
WONDERFUL COMMERCIAL USES |
OF LIQUID AIR.
Now Mr.. Tripler, the American in
ventor, has succeeded in building ma
chine which will produce liquid air in |
very large quantities, at an expense 50 !
low that it may be said to cost moth /
ing at ALL From mere laboratory /
curiosity this marvellous substance has /
Guddenly given promise Of almost I'M |
limited commercial uses so that those !
who know say that it must soon rival /
electricity in the variety of its adap- /
tations. Ships will run with it, guns
will fire with it, it will be used as a .
motive power for operating locomotives /
and automobiles, and in driving great .
manufacturing concerns. Mr.. Tripler /
even predicts that by the agency of /
liquid air, practical aerial navigation is
assured. The problem which has hith-
erto defeated the purposes of aerial |
navigators has been the difficulty of |
producing a propelling machine sufI- !
GENTLY light and yet strong enough to |
keep the propeller in motion. Liquid |
air requires no boilers nor fuel, nor /.
smokestacks, and the machinery neces-
sary to it's use will be mere feathers /
weight compared with the ordinary |
steam engine.
PROCESS OF LIQUEFACTION.
The principle of the liquefaction of |
air and all other gases is exceedingly /
simple. When a gas is compressed, it |
gives out heat-that is q well-known |
fact in physics. When this pressure /
is removed, the gas must take up from |
somewhere the heat which it gave out !