The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-08-09
LIQUID Etir==Wbat 1T rs.

AS
Paper Read Before the cha,tauqua Circle.
IMPORTANT developments in the
ever broadening fields of applied
science and the mechanical arts
discoveries, inventions and i'm
provements-hsve, for many years,
followed one another with such bewil-
dering rapidity that we no longer be-
tray much astonishment at any new
achievement less remarkable than q
Roentgen Ray, mysterious Radium, or I
wonderful Wireless Telegraphy. This
is not entirely the result of indifference,
nor is it due to that expressive degree
of familiarity which is supposed to
breed contempt, but rather to the fact
that, thanks to our advantages of en-
vironment, at the threshold of the
twentieth century, we are generally
prepared in advance for any new de-
velopment, or at least sufficiently pre-
pared to desden the shock of surprise,
as witness the fact thst years of famil-
iarity with the marvellous phonograph
and the underlying principles Of the
telephone, combining with our but
recently augmented knowledge of the
rigid laws governing acoustics, had
prepared US for DR.. Cahills' remarka-
BILE dynamophone, an invention which
but few years since would have fairly
startled world which it today sur
prises into only mere ripple of semi
bored applause.
What is today true in this regard
was almost equally true some seven
years ago when Prof. Dewar, of Eden
borough University, first produced
Liquid Air, a discovery regarding
which very little was ever really under
stood by the public, and which SEEM
iagly, has been quickly forgotten,
since it soon proved valueless CONNER
cially, if not scientifically. And yet,
to the writer at least, there has always
been something intensely fascinating
about this mysterious liquid; the mere
fact that it is obtained from atr-just
the plain ordinary air such as we are
now drawing into our lungs-being OF
itself interesting. Somehow there is
nothing so utterly incomprehensible
about this transparent, mysteriously
iife-sustaining element called air;
something so decidedly intangible
that, to the mind of the layman, the
idea of converting it into liquid
seems too much like getting some.
thing from nothing to be really prac'
ticable
To be sure, any observing person
even tho possessing but Indifferent
powers of Imagination, would be able
to recognize the possibility of convert
ing into substance resembling sof
coal, for instance, the normal atmos
phere of certain American cities which
need not be named; nor would it seen
altogether preposterous to fancy that
by merely passing it between tw'
rollers, typical London fog nigh
become the common article chemical.
known as HO-and, surely, by SOM
simple PROCESS of cremation, the ia
from delicately scented ozone envelop
ing that newly celebrated Packing
town could be reduced to valuabl
and nearly odorless fertilizer. Blu
the fact remains that in none Of thes
hypothetical conversions would tn
air itself be changed except to the ex
tent of being purged of the foreigl
substances and impurities previousl
contained therein.
Our readings in physics Or nstura
philosophy taught that to compres
gases-like air-raises their tempere
ture, while to suddenly expand ther
by release in vacuum, lowers thei
temperature, the degree of expansio
or compression governing the chang
In temperature. illustrating pract
cal application of this law, it may b
remembered by some of you that !
carrying ont comparatively recer
engineering enterprise Of considerab
magnitude construction Of Ne
York's famous speedway, unless tt
writer's memory is at fault-the col
tractors encountered seemingly u
superable difficulty In the presenc
below water, of vast bed OF quicl
sand, some twenty feet beneath whic