Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-07-04
MAKING LIQUID AIR
Plant Now in Operation in New York
City.
The Cost Greatly Cheapened-Possibl
Tses to which 1t May
BE Put.

Inc interesting announcement was maze
in the New York Times June 80 that the
n anufacture of liquid air was being con-
Quoted in that city for commercial purposes.
A plant has been devised and constructed
under the direction of Oscar p. Ostergren
and MorIz Burger. and is located at 531
West 33d street. 1t is capable, with 100
horse power developed by steam, of manu-
featuring about 1900 gallons of liquefied
air in twenty-four hours, or about a gallon
minute. Its practical success is demon
strated by the two facts that it can pro-
duce liquefied air, comparing equal eX-
penditure of power, three times rapidly
as the best apparatus devised by Prof.
Linde of Munich, and at a cost of about
One-third. The cost of liQuefying air by the
Ostergren process is also about one-third
of the cost of the process used by Charles
E. TriDler of this city.
Mr.. Ostergren and Mr.. Burger have been
working at their process for about three
years and have now perfected it in so far
as the device itself is concerned, although
they expect to improve the machinery so al
to reduce further the cost of manufacturing
the liquefied air from to cents a gallon,
as at present, to about 2 This can be
done, according to both, by the use of
the best engines instead of the uneconomic
er gineS they are now using. Even when
the liquefied air is reduced to cost of 2
cents a gallon 1t will then be considerably
IuOTe Costly IMAM an equal aHnouHt VI
steam, but its exceeding portability will
enable it to be used economically as a pow
err, just as electricity is used now, and with
greater advantages than electricity or COM
pressed air. Both of the inventors of the
process have had previous experience in
this line. Mr.. Ostergren Is a well-known
inventor, and Mr.. Burger studied the proc
ess of manufacturing liquefed air under
Prof. Linde in Munich three years ago.
The machinery and the process for the
compression and cooling of the air are the
work of Mr.. Ostergren. while the liquefier
which is claimed to be vast Improvement
upon the liquefiers used by Prof. Tripler
| and Prof. Lnde is the joint work of Mr..
Ostergren and Mr.. Burger.
The Apparatus at Work.
Thursday morning. according to the Times
| the apparatus of Ostergren and Burger
was producing liQuefied air at the rate of
one gallon minute, and large number of
experiments were made for the purpose of
photographing them for illustrated
paper. More than 200 gallons were manu-
featured and wasted in this way.
The object of the manufacture of liquefied
air in such quantities, before it is used
practically as a refrigerant motor.
is merely to demonstrate it's practicability
| for commercial use. Heretofore the cost of
| liquefyng air has been prohibitive from
the tremendous cost of the laboratory ex-
pertinent of Prof Dewar-something like
$500 a gallon-to the cost of ~ cents a
gallon, shown by the larger experiments
of Mr.. Tripler. But when it can be pro-
duced. shown by Ostergren and Burger,
at a cost of only 6 to cents gallon with
perfected apparatus. its commercial future
is considered assured, both as a refrigerant
and a motive power.
It's Possible Uses.
AS to the uses of liquef1ed air. Mr.. Oster-
gren says that it has two inviting fields
as a refrigerant and a motor. '.As a re-
frigerant," he says. eft has manifold ad-
vantages. Its production is cheap and it is
dry, absolutely pure. free from obnoxious
smell and will be more desirable than any
other refrigerant used. 1t can be used in
many places where the present known re-
frigerants cannot be used efficiently and
satisfactorily. such as for cooling rooms,
for use in hospitals and SO on. and there is
no reason that 1 can discover why it should
not supplant ice not only as a refrigerant
in places where ice cannot be successfully
used. but also in the domestic household
and in freight and passenger cars.
Mr. Ostergren is now deviSing a syStem
for cooling dwelling houses and hospitals
by distributing iquified air by means of
fan. This device will be thoroughly tested
this summer.
| AS to its use as a cheap and convenient
motor power he says:
'It has a large expansive force and can
| be utilized with machinery of light con-
struction, and will have the great advan-
| tage of not being destructive to the ma
chinery to which it is applied and with
which it is used other motor powers
are. 1 am building motor now, which
will be completed shortly, and will test
| it's efficiency in this respect
May BE Used as an Explosive.
Mr. Ostergren points out that there are
many other uses to which liquefied air
| may be put.
| 1T has already been demonstrated" he
says, s'that liquid air mixed with carbon
| or any volatile substance becomes a pow
erful explosive. Quite extensive expert
ments have been made abroad with it in
| this line. and at this time where the Sim
plon tunnel is being built through the
mountains in Switzerland, they are build
ing a Linde machine at each end of the
tunnel, for the purpose of furnishing liquid
air necessary to provide the explosive for
constructing the tunnel. In a recent for
mula given for the use of liquid air as an
explosive the result of some experiments
| in Austria it is discovered that twelve gal
Ions OF liquid air used as an explosive is
equivalent to a ton of dynamite"
Dynamite now costs in this city $500 a
ton. Twelve gallons of liQuefied air will
cost about 81.
A short while ago, when Nordenfeld. the
said that liquefed air is the coming explo-
sive for shells in large guns. Mr.. Oster-
gren has devised shell in which liquefied
air Is mixed with charcoal and used as an
explosive. cap at the end of the shell
explodes, when the shell strikes its objec-
tive and fires the charge. This shell will
be tested soon. Both Germany and Aus
tria are experimenting in the same field.
and each claims to have succeeded in util
izing the new force as a powerful and sat-
iSfact0ry explosive.