The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1910-03-25
A VOICE FROM A BOILER.
The Minute Experiences Of Man Her
metically Sealed Up.

A correspondent of the Daily Mail yes
terdav snent some time inside the famous
compressed air boiler Tor air-lock) in
which Dr. Leonard Hill and his assistant
at the London hospital have been expert
menting with the effects OF high ar pres
sure on the human system. The following
communication has reached us from the
boiler" a, ,ooo
London Hospital, Dec Il, l9o9.
| rest on narrow but comfortable mat
tress inside an iron construction when
reminds me of section OF Tube rail-
way tunnel outside, gas engine Is
chugging away while the oval manhole
through which have just wriggled Is be-
ing camped and screwed up with gun,
peon-like clangor OF iron. Above my head
Is n small electric lamp and on my right, a
telepbone. 1t has been arranged that the
air pressure shall be raised about 2 l-3 at
mospheres, or 35 pounds pressure to the
square inch (including the 10 pounds winch
we endure every moment OF our llves).
Almost Immediately after the manhole
is sealed the ears begin to Sing unpleas-
antly. Telephoned instructions are gwen
to 5hold my nose and blow hard, and
the trouble vanishes though, as the pres
sure increases, this has to be repeated oc-
| casionally.
Denser and denser grows the air without
any apparent results until | answer tele-
phone cali from the outer world My
voice has changed beyond recognition, 1t
has nasal phonograph-like quality which
| is positively startling, for with its increased
density the resonating properties OF the
air cavities in the head have altered. At
tempts to whistle a high note are failure
and whispering an imposslblllty. IN TINS
Hat a.
pond water, the gas being unable to re-
lease itself from the liquid.
[ am now in the course OF being re
duced." Air is escaping through small
outlet near the head of the boiler, but
were it allowed to escape instantaneously
the nitrogen which has entered my system,
in minute bulk under compression would
expand into bubbles in my arteries or
veins, which on reaching the heart would
! cause death.
, These bubbles have evidently doomed
| largely in the thoughts of some of the hui
man occupants of the boiler, for amid al
gebraic problems and Greek and Latin
quotations written on the walls around me
stands the Shakespearean phrase, Like a
hell broth boil and bubble" "Shall bub
ble?" seems to have been the irresponsi-
bic thought of some of the experimenters.
DR.. Leonard Hill and his assistant are
not conducting these experiments from
idle curiosity. They have established a
most valuable and definite fact with the
London Hospital apparatus, which was
provided by Messrs Siebe, German & Co.,
Ltd, the well-known firm of submarine
engineers. Divers and caisson workers
have hitherto been reduced" from high to
normal air pressures in consecutive stages,
with long wait between each. DR.. Hills
work has now established the fact that
pressure may be reduced suddenly to about
20 pounds per square inch 1.-THE point at
which the system yields its absorbed nitro
gen in bubbles), and long pause here al
lows the lungs to throw off the poison,
without the fatal 'bubblng."
A second and equally valuable point DR..