The Meeker herald., 1899-04-08
LIQUEFIED AIR NOW
THE LATEST GREAT MARVEL.
Il can be Mads At . Small Cost and H..
No Limit for UtIlity-Msy supp.An,
Steam and Electricity.

The most extraordinary exhibit ever
given In Washington was witnessed at
the Arlington hotel few nights ago
by the scientific circle OF the city,
members of the Cabinet, Supreme
Court, diplomatic corps and other pub
He men. 1t was given under the aus
pices Of the National Geographical So
ciety. presided over by Professor Bell,
the inventor Of the telephone, and fur
nished an opportunity for Charles Il.
Tripler of New York to show for the
first time in public the new motive
power which he has discovered and
calls liquid air. A description of thi;
remarkable fluid and Its uses appears
in McClure's Magazine for March. and
more elaborate account is given in
the April Century.
Briefly and simply stated. Mr.. Trip
Ter takes 500 gallons Of ordinary air,
drawn from any window, and by COM
preston and cold reduces it to one
gallon of liquid that looks like gly
cerine and retains its form nt tenn
perature of 312 degrees below zero.
As 1t warns 1t expands into vapor and
then into air, just as water is expand
ed into steam by heat. BY controlling
this expansion Mr.. Trlpler proposes 10
furnish n new motive power for the
use Of transportation companies on sea
and land. for factories, furnaces and
for every other purpose for which
steam and elccticity are now used The
expansive force is equal to 2ODD
pounds a square inch. and without an
exhaust pipe the pressure is SO great
that there is now no material of sutli-
cient strength to restrain it, In other
words. n pint or Il quart or n gallon of
this liquid Will burst any vessel in
which it may be confined unless there
is an opportunity for its gradual es-
cape.
Liquid air is manufactured by np-
paratus which Mr.. Tripler has invent
ed. The first gallon or two is made by
the use of coal or any other ordinary
fuel. just as ice is made In IL factory.
but thereafter he is able to reproduce
ten gallons of the fluid by the expendi-
ture Of two. railway locomotive. or
n steamship will. therefore. create its
own power from the atmosphere as it
passes along its way. and n factory
engineer will simply turn the key of a
ventilation pipe. start his machine and
manufacture fuel as he needs it. Mr..
Tripler insists that this energy can be
used with no more difficulty and AT n
cost 20 per cent. less than steam. and,
having mastered the secret Of its pro-
ductiOn, he now proposes to apply it
to practical use.
Mr.. Tripler brought six gallons of
liquid air with him from New York,
and in the presence of four or five hun
ded persons performed the experiments
that are described in McClure's Maya
zine. He dipped the stuff out of his
can with an ordinary tin dipper, just
as milkmnn would dip milk. He
dropped potato in ii, lifted 1t out in
| two or three minutes and threw 1t on
the floor, where it broke into thou
sand little crystals He took n rubber
ball. immersed it in the liquid and
then broke 1t rs if 1t was glass. He
dropped in piece of beefsteak and t'A'
a moment II WIS broken into nttle
fragments that looked like petrltied
wood. He Immersed n tumbler of al
cOhol, and i'll Il few minutes it WAS
frozen into n block of ice. He filled Il
pasteboard box with mercury. which
when immersed in the liquid air be-
came rs hard as steel, and he used 1t
as hammer to drive nails in the Ia
bic. He immersed copper. tin. iron and
strips of steel in the liquid air. and
| they crumhod like pccrusi.