The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1908-11-12
Prof. H. Kammerlingh Onnes Of Ley
den has succeeded in liquefying he

Prof. Fl. Kammerlingh OnneS OF Ley
den has succeeded in l~iquefying he
lium.
Terrifying in its destructive aspects
and appalling in it's danger, yet in
tensely fascinating in it's possibilities
for benef1ting 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 459 degrees below the fam
iliar zero mark Of the Fahrenheit
thermometer point which chemists
have vainly 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 wa
hundreds Of degrees from absolute zero.
That was some ten years ago. Now
comes news from the old town Of Ley.
den in Holland-birthplace of the cleo
trio battery-that Prof. H. 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
its temperature and made the incred-
ible discovery that it is but a frac-
ton over four degrees from supposed
ly theoretical jumping-of place Of Jack
Frost.
In order to appreciate the vast sig
niicance Of Prof. Onnes' achievement,
1t is only necessary to recall the means
by which the air is kept at zero tenn
perature in a 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 cf 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, a 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 it liquid
hydrogen itself is as a 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 it can be called
temperature-of liquefied helium.
DR.. H. T.. Galpin, a well known
authority IN 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 no~n-technical
language what the new discovery means
to science and humanity.
"The liquefaction Of helium," he said,
ais 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, hat If We can
distribute ammonia chilled brine from