The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-04-08

WASHINGTON, ID. c., March 90
The most extraordinary exhibit ever
given in Washington was witnessed at
the Arlington hotel last night by the
scientific circle of this city, members
of the cabinet, supreme court, diploma
tbs corps and other public men. 1t was
given under the auspices of the Nation
al Geographical society, presided ov
err by Professor Bell, the inventor of
the telephone and furnished an OPP
portunity for Charles T.. 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 this remarkable fluid
and it's uses appear in McClures Mag
azine for March and a more elaborate
account will be given i'm the April Cen
fury
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 gall
lon of liquid that looks like glycerine,
and retains its form at a temperature
of 312 degrees below zero. AS it warns
it expands into vapor and then into
air, just as water is expanded into
steam by heat. by controlling this eN-
pansion Mr. Tripler proposes to fur
nish a new motive power for the use
of transportation companies on sea or
ON ldDu, LOT IdClOIleS, luIl ldttS anu Lpl
every other purpose for which steam
and electricity are now used. The eX-
pansive force is equal to 1000 pounds
a square inch, and without an eX-
haust pipe the pressure is so great that
there is no material of sufficient tex
tile strength to retain it. In other
words a pint or quart or gallon
of this liquid will burst any vessel in
which it may be cofined unless there is
an opportunity for it's gradual escape.
Liquid air is manufactured by APP
paratus which Mr.. Tripler has invent
ed. The first gallon or two is made
by the use of coal or any other 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. A railway locomotive or
steamship will therefore create it's own
power from the atmosphere as it pass
eS along on it's way, and factory en-
gineer will simply turn the key of
Ventilating 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 a
cost 20 per cent less than steam, and,
having mastered the secret of it's 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 HNe
hundred persons performed the expert
ments that are described in McClure's
Magazine. He dipped the stuff out of
his can with an ordinary tin dipper,
just as a mlllman would dip milk. He
dropped a potato in it, lifted it out in
two or three minutes, and threw in on
the floor, where it broke into a thous-
and little crystals. He took a rub
Der ball, immersed it in the liquid and
then broke it as if it were glass. He
dropped in a piece of beefsteak, and in
a moment it was broken into little
fragments that looked like petrified
wood He immersed a tumbler of al
| cohol and in few moments it was
frozen into a block of ice. He filled
a pasteboard box with mercury which
when immersed in the liquid air be-
came as hard as steel, and he used it
as a hammer to drive nails in the ia
BILE. He immersed copper, tin, iron and
strips of steel in the liquid air and all
crumbled like piecrust. He demon
strated the expansive power of the Ii
! quid in a similar manner, and alto
gether performed experiments that
were not only novel but amazing,