The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1901-02-21

where cauter1ZatiOn is necessary, IL Will
eat out diseased flesh much more quick
ly and safely than caustic potash or nj
trio acid, and it can be controlled abb
solutely Indeed, Mr.. Tripler has ac-
tually furnished well-known New
York physician with enough to scar out
cancer and entirely cure difficult
case. And it is cheaper than any eau
terizing chemical in use.
1t is difficult to conceive of the cold
of liquid air. Mr.. Tripler performs
number of striking experiments to illus
trate its low temperature. He partially
fills tin teapot with it and sets 1t
on a cake of ice, where the air at once
begins to boil violently, throwing OH
fierce white vapor The temperature of
the ice is about thirty-two degrees Fab
renheit, while the temperature OF the Ii
guild air is 3I2 degrees below zero. In
other words, ice is 344 degrees warmer
than liquid air; consequently 1t makes
the air boil
Mr.. Tripler set the tea-kettle over a
hot gas flame, but it boiled only a
shade more vigorously than it did on the
ice, and thick sheet of frost actually
formed on the bottom of the kettle
where the flame played most fiercely.
1
| ture-2o2 degrees below zero-that it is
used in Thermometers to register all de-
| grees of cold. But it will not measure
| the fearful cold of liquid air. l saw a
| cup of liquid air poured into tumbler
| partly filled with alcohol Mr.. Tripler
| stirred it up with a glass rod. 1t boiled
| violently for a few minutes, and then
| it thickened up suddenly until it looked
like sugar syrup: then it froze solid, and
| Mr.. Tripler held it Zip in long steam
ing icicle. Mercury is frozen until it is
| as hard as granite Mr.. Tripler made a
little pasteboard box the shape of a
hammer head, filled it with mercury,
suspended rod in it for handle, and
then placed it in a pan of liquid air.
| In few minutes it was frozen so solid
| that it could be used for driving nails
into a hardwood block What would
| the scientists of twenty-five years ago
have said if anyone had predicted the
use of mercury hammer for driving
nails?
Liquid air freezes other metals just
as thoroughly as it freezes mercury.
| Iron and steel become as brittle as glass.
Copper, gold and all precious metals, on
the other hand, are made more pliable
so that even thick piece can be bent
readily between the fingers.
saw an egg boiled-or frozen-in
| liquid air. 1t came out so hard that a
sharp blow of a hammer was required
to crack it, and the inside of it had the
peculiar crystalline appearance of quartz
"a kind of mineral egg.
THE time is certainly coming" says
Mr.. Tripler, when every great packing
house, every market, every hospital, ev-
cry hotel and many private houses will
have plants for making liquid air. The
machinery is not expensive, It can be
set up in tenth part of the space oc-
cupied by an ammonia ice-ma shine, and
its product can be easily handled and
| placed where it is most needed. Ten
years from now hotel guests will call
for cool rooms in summer with as much
certainty of getting them as they now
call for warm rooms in winter.
And think of what unspeakable value
the liquid air will be in hospitals. In
the first place. it is absolutely pure air
in the second place the proportion OF
oxygen is very large so that it is vitaliz,
| ing air. Why. it will not be necessary
| for the tired out man of the future to
make his usual summer trip to the
mountains. He can have his ozone and
his cool heights served to him in his
room. Cold is always a disinfectant;
some disease germs, like yellow fever.
it kills outright. Think of the value of
a cold ward in hospital, where the
air could be kept absolutely fresh, and
where nurses and friends could visit the
| patient without fear of Infection
Suppose, also. as Mr. Tripler does,
that every warship could have a liquid
air plant. 1t would not only operate to
the ships propellers, but it would be
absolutely invaluable in cooling off the
guns after firing, in saving the lives of
| the sailors in the sweltering sick bay,
and. indeed. in firing the cannon.
Air is composed of twenty-five parts
of oxygen and seventy-eight of nitrogen.
! Oxygen liqueies at 300 degrees below
zero, and nitrogen at $50 degrees. Con-
sequently, when in the form OF liquid
air, nitrogen evaporates the more rap
idly This difference is shown by Mr..
Tripler by pouring quantity of the
| liquid air into a large glass vessel, partly
filled with water. For a moment it
floats. boiling with great violence, IL
quid air being slightly lighter than wa
| ter When, however, the nitrogen has
all boiled away, the liquid oxygen, be-
| ing heavier than water, sinks in beau
tiful, silvery bubbles which boil violent
ly unit! they disappear. A few drops
of liquid air thrown into water will in
stantly freeze for themselves little boats
OF ice which sail merrily until the liquid
air boils away.
In this way liquid air left exposed be-
comes stronger in its proportion of oxy-
| a,,1 ,,, ta1
form is a very wonderful substance. For
instance, ordinary wooden felt :an hard
| Nv be persuaded to burn even in a hot
fire, but if it is dipped in this concen.
| trated oxygen, or even in liquid air, and
lighted, it will explode and burn with
| all the terrible violence of gun-cotton
Indeed, liquid air will burn steel itself
| Mr. Tripler demonstrates this most
strikingly by taking a tumbler OF ice
| and filling it half full of liquid oxygen.
Then he fastens burning match to a
bit of steel spring and dips it into the
| ly like a greasy bit of pork rind-sput-
tering, and giving out glare of daz-
cling brilliancy
The property of liquid oxygen to pro-
mote rapid combustion will make it in
valuable, Mr.. Tripler thinks, for use
as an explosive. A bit of oil waste.
soaked in liquid air, was placed inside of
a small iron tube, open at both ends
This was laid inside of larger and
stronger pipe, also open at both ends.
| When the waste was ignited by fuse,
the explosion was so terrific that it no.
only blew the smaller tube to pieces,
but it burst a great hole in the outer
tube. Mr.. Tripler thinks that by the