The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-06-25
LIQUID AIR AND ITS USES.
THE EXPERIMENTS NON BEING MADE
BY OSCAR r. OsTERGREN.

Launch Eilide and tho Torpedo boat
Bailey-Now He IL Making Liquid Air
and Has High Hope of Its Possible
tiles in Many Fields of UsefuIness.
II Engineer Oscar =. Ostergren succeeds rs
we'll In his latest cndeavor as he has in his
earlier work snco no came to this country.
there will soon be plant running in this city
which will make LIQUID air so rapidly that 1t
will eush from the outlet ppe OF the machine
as mountain streams aush from rlefts IN the
native rock. In twJ runs. preliminary to
regular time trial. the liquid air has been
made at the rate OF 1000 gallons a Jay. and
upon the occasion OF the lrst trial 1t was dem
onetrated that IL was possible with the same
machine to reduce the temperature OF the
liouefied air to about 400 below zero and to
freeze 1t into snow. That result was disas
trous, however. for IL cloRged the machine in
such way as to restrict the circulation 81
air within II. bursting that part OF the machine
In which the air was frozen and destroying it,
MIR. OsterRrens successes In other dircc-
lions have been notable. and. as he is still q
young man. there Ia good reason not only to
believe that he will bring liquid air into COM
mercial use for many purposes. but that he
may add in other ways to the remark abe in
ventions which have made this the most won
derful age OF the world. He came to this
country from Sweden seven or eight years ago.
and is now about 33 years old. The first work
that showed his exceptional ability was the
designing of the steam launch Ellide. which
made worlds record when she was sent out
for n preliminary trial trip ON June IL 1897.
running q measured mile at the rate Of 36k
miles an hour and this speed she Is said to
have exceeded by three miles an hour upon
her later trials.
Almost up to tho time Of the first trial Of the
Elids the best speed that had been obtained
on the water was about 30 miles an hour.
and few persons were sanguine enough to ex.
pect materially higher speed except BY grad
ual advances. But in the spring OF 1897 the
world learned of.the wonderful performances
OF the 1OO-foot long. steam turbine driven
boat Turbinia. built by Charles Parsons OF
Great Britain. Even after it was known that
she had obtained a speed OF 37a miles an
hour. it was not expected that any boat driven
by the older type Of engines could reach any
such speed. Suddenly. however. the Ellde
made her appearance. and. with length on
the water line of only ~ feet. shs soon passed
the recoid. Since that time one other boat
the Hal Lung. torpedo boat destroyer. built
by thu Srhichau works at Elbing. Germany.
for the Chinese Navy. has exceeded the speed
OF the Ellide. making at the rate OF 35.2 knots.
OF 3D.S mice, an nOur, out Slle Is the only ono,
although there are number now bu!dinR
which are intended to do even better
Wheel T. burgess Warren u philadelphia
gave the order to Charles ID. MOsher for the
Ellde II was with proviso that made tho de-
signing OF the little vessel most interesting
problem in naval engineering Mr.. Warren
had spent considerable time fishing on Lake
George and had become annoyed at having a
large humber oi other person' run past him in
TO any other craft; Mr. Mosher had already
Warren went 70 him for the new boat. The
Feiseen was Mr.. Moshers fastest production
before the Ellide came out, and she was cred
tied with n sneed Of 30 miles an hour. After
talking over what Mr. Warren wanted. 1t was
decided that'his Graf. should 10 about Is or
~ feet long and as fast "a Mr.. Moshsr could
make OF least ~ miles an hour For this the
contract price wa, s3o0OO. and Mr.. Mosher
speed which she developed beyond 30 miles
an hour. This was the form In which the prob
who was at that time 10 Mr. Moshers employ
as engineer and designer. So far as general
design Of hull was concerned. there was not
much to be done except to adopt the lines al
ready marked out. which are accepted to-day
Is the best, az they were then.
hull 80 feet long on the water line and 8
!eet inches in beam was decided upon. and
then came the problem Of getting everything
lSwn to The lichtest possible weight. and com
bininR with this the greatest possible driving
bower in boiler and engines. Speed. with
other conditions equal. dependS upon driving
ton OF weight carried increases with great
rapidity as he speed IL increased 1t 1t takes
lU0 horse power 70 drive Ascertain boat ten
miles an hour. 1t will take 800 horse power TO
loub0 the speed. When the Ellids was finally
leauy she weighed complete, only sixteen tons.
tnd in strict racing rig could he got down to
fourteen tons. aud her boilers and engines
Eould develop 100 horse power. or more than
BY horse power TO the ton OF displacement.
Her boilers and engines weighed only twenty
five pounds to the horse power. and the whole
boat in racing trim only thirty-ive pounds to
While MIR. O.tergren was with Mr.. Mosher
he designed another boat. which he says he
has has never yet heart Of "a performance but
Tide both in speed and comparative lighrness.
This boat was for Francis r Magoun OF this
tended to attain a speed OF between 40 and 80
miles an hour. The entire boat was TO weigh
two tons and was to have 400 horse power.
and ready Or service would weigh only three
tons. or fifteen pounds per horse power. She
was to carry steam at 900 poun ls pressure 70
auadruple expansion engine, which was so deli
cately designed that it would weigh only two
Eines weigh about fifteen pounds per horse
power, and those for big steamers weigh dou.
bile that. Mr.. Osts-Gren SAYS that this, boat
would have been three pounds TO the horse
After Mr. osterrren left Mr. mus M"sheT sS" sm
bury 4 Co. Tho HALEY is ,50s feet IGnq. IL
feet Lean and 81 20 tons displacement. and
.
has 5000 horse tower Mr. Ostergren says
that the Bailey Is novel in design throughout
being the first OF the United States torpe 10
bonts or des,royers not built after European
designs.
Mr.. OsterRren declares that the limit of
speed 70" vessels driven by steam has been
nearly reached. but that he expects to see YES
sells driven in other ways built before many
years to make sixty miles an hour and that he
hopes 70 take up that problem himself before
long. Future progress. he says. lies in the
use OF liquid fuels. II gasoline were burned
under a boiler II would give double the scam
making result, pound for pound. that coal
does. but that would only be n step in the
right direction.
II would do away with steam engines and
steam boilers altogether he said. and in
tuelr place use VupO. engines burning lluuid
fuel. The amount OF weight saved would not
only be that of the boilers and water but also
that got by doing away with the auxiliary en-
Rines OF the steam engine. which weis ordl-
narily as much Hs the main engines / would
use three or more shafts revolving at high
speed. and upon each Of these would lie a
cluster Of small propellNrs instead of one large
screw, Then instead OF using one large engine
TO drive each shaft would divide the mower
production into small units. extending these
small engines for q long distance within tho
ship by doing this the vibrations would be
broken up by the mutual Interference OF their
waves and | think it would he possible t. get
power enough to drive q boat ut the rats of
sixty miles an hour across the ocean"
proper null for Bxty-mile ehin. he said.
would In theory have to be about thirty times
as long ne Il was vida hut this would ha ont