Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-06-25
Of boiling water is above it.

producing 200 degrees F.
In the early experiments the illu-
minating element of common gas,
known as ethylene, which boils when
llquefied at POS degrees F., gave sue
cessful results, but it was too expen-
sive. Olenofski introduced the method
of cooling the air by its own expan-
sion to 200 degrees F., 300 degrees
F., and even 400 degrees F.
eff we had in this city the Paris
system of transmitting power by COM
pressed air we would be familiar with
the fact that the outlets where this
compressed air escapes into the at
mosphere, even in summer weather,
become frost covered. This is due to
nothing but the expansion of the air.
In the Paris system the air starts with
only sixty pounds of pressure. Sup
posing we start with 1000 pounds of
pressure, the expansion would pro-
duce cold perhaps thirty times as in
tense, or temperature low enough
to liquefy the last portion of the thus
expanding air. This is the system en-
ployed at present in continuous COM
pressions and expansions. The pipes
are finally cooled to such a degree that
air, simply from passing through
them, becomes a liquid.
ct was not until two years ago that
scientists, even with this powerful
cooling, succeeded in liquefying hydro
gen. This liquid hydrogen has thrown
down another scientific ghost-the So
called absolute zero of cold. Earlier
physicists figured that at -459 degrees
F. all gases would become solids, and
all heat and chemical action would be
destroyed. Liquid hydrogen boils even
below that -459 degrees F., absolute
zero showing that it must be cooled
to temperature probably 100 degrees
F. lower to act like common water.
Hydrogen and helion may be said TO
belong to a different world--to one of
SO much greater cold that in it even
Il, 900 degrees F. represents only what
to us is zero Fahrenheit
"To revert to the subject OF liquefied
air as motive power. In practice we
will liquefy only 30 per cent. of the air
which we compress, and the liquefied
air will only return 80 per cent. of it's
total possible power This means that
we can get back as motive power only
80 per cent. of 80 per cent, or 9 per
cent, Of the power used to liquefy the
air. 1t would cost, therefore, eleven
times as much to drive a machine by
liquefied air as it costs by direct steam
powef.
Zone gallon of liquefed air weighs
1917 pounds. It yields eighty cubic
feet of common air In good steam
engine to maintain one horsepower re-
quires the evaporation Of thirty pounds
of water an hour. Water vapor is al,
most twice as great in volume as the
same weight of air. Applied in the
cylinder of an engine, it would take
sixty pounds of liquid air, or nearly
six gallons, to maintain a force of one
horsepower for an hour An explana-
ton of this point was asked from Mr..
Tripler directly, clearly, and emphati-
cally, and he answered with a general
ity, not to the point. With ideal ma
chinery, utilizing all possible pressure,
to maintain force of one horsepower
might require only two and half gal
Ions of liquid air an hour, but no such
machinery was ever built, nor does Mr..
Tripler know of any
Another question asked of Mr. Trip
Ter which he did not answer was, How
much does one gallon of liquid air
cost?' President l. w. Litchfeld, a
graduate of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, has said that he paid S.
gallon to Mr.. Tripler for liquefied air,
make it for Is cents a gallon. Is there
any better business opportunity in the
world? Take your air, which costs
nothing, add Is cents worth of steam
power, and get S..
ct is easy to figure that a so horse
power engine can produce in a day
from five to ten gallons of liquid air
This makes the minimum cost about 81
en- by liquid air would cost about Sc an
hour.
This liquid air scheme seems to
have no connection with a large New
Jersey corporation recently formed to
make what is called air power The
latter aims merely to distribute COM
pressed az through city by pipes,
with taps at convenient corners, so that
motor vehicles could be charged by
them. That this is practicable
scheme is demonstrated in our own
city by the North Clark street night
cars, which run four miles with only
one charge of the reservoir.
''Mr. Tripler's work is original only
in the details of his experiments. It
must be most fascinating to produce
temperatures foreign to the natural
conditions Of our earth. Nowhere does
the earth naturally produce tempera-
lures approximating those of liquid
air THE coolest snOt on oI1r o1ohe