Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1899-04-21

y
given in Washington was witnessed
atthe Arlington Hotel few nights ago
hy the scientific circle of the city.
members OF the Cabinet, Supreme
Court, Diplomatic Corps and other
uubic 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 +. 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 500 gallons of ordinary air
drawn from any window aud by com
preston and cold reduces it to one
gallon Of a liquid that looks like
gvcerine and retains It's form at a tenn
perature of 3l2 degrees below zero.
As it warns II expands into vapor and
then into air, Just as water is eX-
panied into steam by heat. BY con-
trolling this expansion Mr.. Tripler
proposes to furnish 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 10
material of sufficient strength to re-
strain it. In other words, pint or a
quart or 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 APP
paratus which Mr.. Tripler has in
vented. The first gallon or two is
made by the use of coal OF any other
ordinary fuel Just as ice is made in a
factory, but thereafter he is able to
reproduce ten gallons of the fluid by
the expenditure of two. 4 railway
locomotive or 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 pipe,
start his machine and manufacture
fuel as he needs it. 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-
teal use.
Mr.. Tripler brought six gallons of
liquid air with him from New York,
and III the presence of four or five
hundred persons performed the ex-
perlments that are described in Nc
Cures Magazine. He dipped the
stuff out of his can with an ordinary
tin dipper, just as milkman would
dip milk. He dropped a potato i'll it,
lifted it ont in two or three minutes
and threw it on the floor, where it
broke into a thousand little crystals
He took a rubber ball, immersed it in
the liquid and then broke it as if it
was glass. He dropped in a piece of
beefsteak and i'll a moment it was
broken into little fragments that
looked like petriied wood. He i'm
mersed tumbler of alcohol, and in 2
few minutes it was frozen into a block
Of ice. He filled a pasteboard box
with. mercury, which when immersed
IN the liquid air became as hard as
steel, and he used it as a hammer to
drive nails in the table. He immersed
copper, tin, iron and strips CT steel in
the liquid air, and they crumbled like
plecrust. He demonstrated the ex-
pansiye power of the liquid i'll similar
manner, and altogether performed ex-
periEents that were not only novel
but amazing.