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

tually liquehed is nothing but felt
d-canvass-covered tube about as large
around as a small barrel and perhaps
fifteen feet high. The lower end is set
the height of a mans shoulders above
the floor. and there is little spout be-
low, from which, upon opening frosty
valve, the liquid air may be seen burst
ing out through a cloud of icy mist.
l asked the old engineer who has been
with Mr.. Tripler for years what was In
side of this mysterious swathed tube.
It's full of pipes he said.
| asked Mr. Tripler the same ques-
ton.
Pipes" was his answer; pipes and
coils with especially construc ted valves
for the air to go in, and pipes and coils
for it to go out-that's all there is to
it."
So | investigated the pipes. Two sets
led back to the compressor engine, and
Mr.. Tripler explained that they both
carried air under pressure OF about
$500 pounds to the square inch. The
heat caused by the compression had been
removed by passing the pipes through
coolers filled with running water, so
that the air entered the liqueher at a
temperature of about fifty degrees Fab
renheit
THE first of these pipes contains the
air to be liqueied,' explained Mr.. Trip
Ter; "the other carries the air which is
to do the liquefying. By turning this
valve at the bottom of the apparatus
allow the air to escape through a small
hole in the second pipe. 1t PUSHES out
over the first pipe, expanding rapidly
and taking up heat. You see the liquefier
is so tall that it acts as chimney and
the icy cold air is drawn up to the
top, following the first pipe all the way
and greedily extracting its heat This
process continues until such degree of
cold prevails in the first pipe that the
air is liquefed and drips down into re-
ceptacle at the bottom. Then all have
to do is to turn a valve, and the liquid
air pours out. ready for use.
Mr.. Tripler says that it takes only
ten or fifteen minutes to get liquid air
after the compressor engine begins to
run. Professor Dewar always lost nine
ty per cent in drawing off his product;
Mr.. Tripler's loss, is inappreciable.
Sometimes the cold in the liqueher be-
comes so intense that the liquid air ac
tually freezes hard, stopping the pipes.
Mr.. Tripler has never tried. but he says
he believes he could get degree of
cold in his lique6er sufficient to reduce
hydrogen gas to liquid form.
This very simple process has given
rise to some curious questions on which
future scientists may work at their pleas
use.
''I've been pulling myself a good
DEAL" said Mr.. Tripler, lover the ques-
10 of oil t,a hao
that | take out of the air in the process
of liquefaction, The air goes in at a
temperature of this room. say seventy
degrees Fahrenheit. AT liquefaction it is
3I2 degrees below zero 1t has lost 3Sa
degrees of heat in fifteen minutes, and
you would expect that the air which
rises from the top of my apparatus
would be red hot; but it isn't; it's cold
Now, where did all that heat go? A lit
tie of it, | know, becomes electricity, be-
cause the liquid air is always more or
less charged when it comes out but
that only accounts for small part of
the whole"
And then Mr. Tripler, who has the
true speculative imagination of the SCI
enlist, which so often thrills the lay
man with its sudden reaches into the
deep things of nature, asked suddenly :
Where does heat go an anyway? Die
you ever think of that? Every transfer
of energy tends to lower temperature.
Every time that heat, for instance, is
transferred into electricity. every time
that electricity is transferred into heat,
there is loss-a leakage. Scientists used
to think that there could be no real loss
of energy-that it was all conserved, al
though changed in form. They have Civ
ell up that theory, at least so far as this
earth is concerned. We are gradually
cooling off, and some time the cold will
be so great that the air will all fall in
liquid drops like rain and freeze INFO
quartz-like material. Then the hydrogen
gas will liquefy and freeze; then he'll
irnn gas: and the world will be nothing
but dead, inert block of mineral with
out a vestige of the vibrations which
cause heat. Now where does all this
heat go?"
And when you come to think of it, !"
Mr.. Tripler continued, were a good
deal nearer the cold end of the ther-
mometer than we are to the hot end.
suppose that once we had temperature
equal to that of the sun, say 10000 e
grees Fahrenheit We have fallen to an
average of about sixty degrees in this
latitude; that is. we have lost o94o de-
grees. We don't yet know just how cold
the absolute cold is-the final cold, the
cold of interstellar space-but Professor
Dewar thinks it is about 46I degrees be-
low zero, Fahrenheit. If it is, we have
only matter of 52I degrees yet to lose,
which is small compared with 1000.
Still don't think we have any cause to
worry; it may take few billion years
for the world to reach absolute cold"
Mr.. Tripler handles his liquid air
with freedom that is awe-inspiring. He
uses battered saucepan in which to
draw it out OF the liqueier. and he
keeps it in double iron can, not unlike
an ice-cream freezer, covering the top
with a wad of coarse telling to keep
out as much heat as possible. You can
handle liquid air with perfect safety" he
said; you can do almost anything with
it that you can with water, except to
shut it up tight"
This is not at all surprising when one
remembers that single cubic foot OF
liquid air contains 500 cubic feet of air
at ordinary pressure-a whole hall bed
room full reduced to the space of large
pail. Its desire to expand, therefore, is
something quite irrepressible But so
long as it is left open, it SINNERS con-
tentedly for hours, finally disappearing
whence it came.
Mr., Tripler showed me Dewar bulb
IAN odd glass apparatus invented by
Professor Dewar-in which liquid air
in small quantities can be kept safely
for some time. 1t consists Of two vessels
of glass. one within the other, having.
high vacuum between the walls and
Joined in a common neck at the top. The