Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-10-23

Prof. H. Kammerlingh Onnes of Ley
den has succeeded In 1iquefying he
lIum
Terrifying In It's destructive aspect
and appalling In It's danger, yet -
tensely fascinating in its possibilities
for benefting the world, the latest
explanation of chemical science has
placed mankind literally within but a
few degrees of the frozen pole OF
knowledge
Heat is life; cold is humiliation.
The final and absolute extremes Of
these are as yet heights so exquisite
and depths so profound that they mock
at once the lens and the plummet-line
OF human conception.
For the sake of convenience, how
ever, science has established a pure
ly arbitrary starting point for the
measurement of heat and cold This
Is called the absolute zero" and is
fixed at 400 degrees below the fam
liar zero mark of the Fahrenheit
thermometer point which chemists
have yainly sought to reach ever
since Prof. Dewar most nearly ap-
preached it by his astonishing feat OF
liquefying air and hydrogen.
But even Dewar's greatest cold was
hundreds Of degrees from absolute zero
That wasA some ten years ago. Now
comes news from the old town of Ley.
den in Holland-birthpla of the cleo
trio battery-that Prof. Fl. Hammer
lingh Onnes of that city has succeeded
In liquefying the rarest and most vo-
latile of all gases. He has reduced
helium to a visible fluid, determined
It's temperature and made the incred-
ible discovery that Ii is but frac-
ton over four degrees from supposed
iy theoretical jumplng-off place of Jack
Frost
In order to appreciate the vast sig
niieance Of Prof Onnes' achievement,
1t is only necessary to recall the means
by which the air is kept at zero tenn
perature in cold storage warehouse.
As everyone knows, evaporation causes
cold. 1t is the evaporation of the wa
ter with which you battle your face
not the temperature OF the water IT.
self-which produces the sensation of
GOODNESS.
According as the evaporation is slow
or rapid, the cold produced is less or
greater. So, in a cold storage plant,
ammonia gas which is extremely vol
atile, is allowed to evaporate, either
directly into the air or 1t is released
in the presence of brine (which freezes
only at less than zero temperature)
and the brine, taking the temperature
of the evaporating ammonia. is then
distributed in pipes throughout the cs-
tablishment. Thus the desired degree
of cold is impaired to the storage
rooms.
Now fancy If you can, cold, COM
pared with which the deadly chill from
ammonia gas Is hotter than boiling
oil call this the temperature of LIQUID
hydrogen. Then, with this as a new
point of departure, try to imagine a
cold so profound that beside 1t loud
hydrogen itself is as boiling oil, and
the frozen heart of an ice plant is
hotter than the bowels of a smelling
furnace, and you have some conception
OF the temperature-if 1t can be callc
temperature-of liquefied helium.
DIR. II. T. Galpin, well known
authority on refrigeration. a member
of the London Society OF Chemical In
dustry, the American Chemical Society
and the Society of Electrical Engineers,
attempted to explain in non-technical
language what the new discovery means
TO science and humanity.
The liquefaction of helium." he said.
sis of the most startling and far-reach-
ing significance. 1t opens the door
to possibilities of which students of
refrigeration have long been aware
but which thus far have been beyond
our reach in actual practice. 1t is
apparent, for example that If we can
distribute ammonia chilled brine from