The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1922-06-15
COMPRESSED AIR
. Continued from Page I


chambers at a distance, was in the right
direction but failed in its practical opera
ton by the elasticity Of the air, which he
had intended to use as a long piston in
transmitting power from an air working
piston to distant water piston. 1t was
the fertile and mechanical brain of Papin
that first conceived the idea of the pneu-
matte tube for transmitting parcels by air
pressure, thus antedating by more than
200 years cur pneumatic tube postal and
package service, and thus early opening
the way for future advancement in the use
of compressed air.
Experiments were made in Wales in
these early years to utilize water power
for COMPRISING air and transmitting it
long distances for operating blast fur
naces. In 1857 Wilkinson, in England
patented a method of COMPRISING air by
the use of column of water, effecting his
object by means of series of chambers or
water compressors, used one after another,
so as to keep up regular pressure; thus,
in crude way, preceding by hundred
years the water compressor of Sommeiler
at the Mont Gents tunnel. Many vague
descriptions of apparatus for the use of
compressed air in the mechanic arts and
for its compression are found in the Eng
lish patents during the 18th century; but
either their practical applications were
never realized or else no record was made
of their operation.
The application of compressed air to
practical uses and its transmission for
power purposes seem to have commenced
an era of advancement in the last years of
the 18th century. Professor St. Clair, of
the Edinburgh university, in 1885, pro-
posed attaching air bags to sunken vessels
beneath the surface of the water and in
fating them by air pumps; followed by
Its practical use for raising vessels, for
which many patents have been issued in
Europe and the U. S. for various modi6-
cations of this device. Its most successful
trials were made in 1864 raising steamer
sunk in lake Boden, and in raising the
vessels sunk at Sebastopol during the
Crimean war.
from that time on many patents have
been issued for various devices for rails
ing vessels by initiating floats by air pres
sure, and for COMPRISING air and its use
in diying-bells and submarine armor
Medhurst, Danish engineer in England,
IN 1899 compressed air to IS atmospheres
(210 pounds) stored and transmitted if to
motor in mine; he patented a pneu-
matte system for conveying persons and
parcels in tubes in 1910, followed by pub
locations during period of several wears
on tubular transmission by compressed air.
There is no record of the practical work.
ing of the many schemes of this fertile
genius.
Compressed air for driving vehicles
seems to have had its birth with the begin
ming of the 10Th century in patent to
Medhurst in England, August Q, 1900,
for means for propelling carriages by
compressed air from a reservoir. Com
pressed air for tramway cars appears to
have received an impulse in Wright's
English patent, April, 1928; he also pro-
posed the use of iron cylinders beneath the
cars, with an additional cylinder for
heating the air by small furnace to in
crease its expansive force before entering
the working cylinder and to mingle steam
generated by the same furnace with the
hot air.
The air brake seems to have taken shape
at this time in Wrights patent with an
eccentric on wheel shaft, connected with
a piston, which was to be operated as
brake on down grades by pumping air
into the air chambers; but it was not until
1869 that the brakes began to take prac-