The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1903-05-02
MAN DID IT WITH LIQUID AIR IN
CORVALLIS WEDNESDAY
NIGHT.
Frozen Flame Fell in Flakes to
Flcor-How the Mysterious
and Terrible Fluid is
Made-Its Bitter Cold
and Awful Heat.

the blaze of lighted alcohol lamp
400 people saw it done saw the op
orator scrape the frozen blaz- from
the bottom of the kettle containing
the liquid air, and finally saw the
flakes Of solidized flame fall like
snowaakes to the floor. Without
seeing it done, nobody would
scarcely stand ready to believe that
blaze could be frozen. That's
why 400 people sat silent and
amazed at the performance Wed
nesday night.
And the liquid air did many
other queer things, The stuff looks
like ordinary clear water, 1t Is
not quite SO heavy as water. 1t is
made from the air we brea he. 1t
is ordinary air liquifed. The pro-
cess for liquifying is very difficult
aud expensive. 1t was accomplish
ed for the first time about 20 years
ago, but only in very small guam
THY. Scientists had believed it
could be done, and had been try
ing to do it for years and years be
fore, Five years later an Amer
ican, invented process Of nlanu-
featuring it, which IS still in use,
The air has to be reduced to
temperature of 3I2 degrees below
zero before it can be liqui6ed To
do this is laborious. 1t goes through
three appliances called separators.
each of which assisss in lowering
the temperature. And even after
the temp rature Of 312 below is
reached, then the air mas to be sub
jected to an enormous pressure in
order to liquify it. The pressure
is applied in what is called the
liqulfer, the inner content of
which is system of copper pipe.
a 900 feet or nearly a miie long.
Sometimes 2 300 pounds of pres
sure to the square inch will liqui-
fly it, sometimes 800 pounds would
do it, but often it takes as high
as $500 pounds pressure per square
incn to convert the triply frozen
air into liquid air, All this makes
its manufacture 80 expensive that
many uses that it will sometime
be put to. are not possible now.
A rubber ball, after being i'm
msrsed in liquid air, burst into
as though it were piece
Of china. when dropped on the
floor in the experiments Wednes-
day night. The rubber was frozen
20 hard that it was made brittle as
glass. A piece of bsefsteak frozen
in the same way broke in pieces
like china. So did flowers, the
petals of which broke in little
pieces with a brittleness that was
A mans handker-
shief so immersed in the fluid froze
30 hard that it too, broke in pieces
like glass. A tin dipper treated
with it for half minute when
dropped on the table few into a
hundred fragments, as though it
had been an antique vase.
The fluid is so cold that it can
freeze and brittleize every known
metal save four. These are plat
mum, gold. silver and copper. It
10 so cold that when brought into
contact with it, ordinary air boils
it, just as a hot stove boils ordinary
water. A volume Of vapor ascend.
ed all the time when the liquid
was being handled in open air.
1t sizzled like boiling water. On
the outside of the cup that con-
tanned it frost quickly appeared,
caused by condensation and freez-
ing of the humidity 10 the sur
rounding atmosphere. It is go
cold, that the operator frozs an
alcohol Thermometer with it in a
period of about half minute. and
froze mercury thermometer in a
little longer time.
Though a liquid, liquid air is
perfectly dry. 1t vets nothing
that is immersed in it. 1t freezes
it perfectly dry. When the hand
touches it, burning sensation is
felt. Though cold to the .312th de-
gree below zero, liquid air is about
the hottest thing on earth. A thick
piece of felt, ordinarily slow and
odoriferous to burn when touched
to flame after immersion in liq-
uid air was consumed with puff
like the explosion of a handful Of |
The same felt when
the blaze was applied before inn
mersion, wouldn't burn at all. Cot
ton similarly treated, actually ex-
ploded. The human body, it is |
said, liquid air will instantaneous
ly consume. What boon to the
whose chief problem is,
how TO dispose of the body. Also
for crematories in the future when
fhe LIQUID becomes cheaper. Fall