LIQUID AIR AND ITS POSSIBILITIES.
(Second Best Scientific Article in Competition.)
THE liquefaction of air seems, indeed, to be a wonder, but to
the scientist such is no longer the case. To him it is not a
new venture into nature's realm of mysteries hence the
question, why has it not been made known to the public ? Simply
because more promising forces have taken precedence and this
has been laid aside until a more convenient time to study its
nature, or until a more urgent need demanded it.
The cheapest, quickest, safest, and most convenient means to
obtain an end are the ones that will always take the preference.
We find such to be the case with electricity in its great strides of
late years, and again we find water as a motive force replacing
steam because of the greatly decreased cost in the production of
the former and the efficient transference of same by means of
electricity. Electricity in . its turn now finds an auspicious rival
for this purpose in the form of liquid air.
Prof. Faraday, that prince of experimenters, was among the
first to convert what are ordinarily called gases into a liquid form.
He succeeded in this by bringing a pressure to bear upon the
gas, but when he attempted to liquefy gases having a critical
temperature less than ioo° C. he was no longer successful. Re
peated failures - to liquefy these gases led to naming them per
manent gases.
Suppose we could prevent a bulk of confined steam from falling
below 1 oo° C., its boiling point. Then no matter how much
pressure is applied to this vapor a transformation into its liquid
state cannot be accomplished. But on the other hand if a lower
ing of temperature is affected a liquid will result at once. Now
then think of air or any gas in exactly the same relation, com
press it at ordinary temperature to whatever tension you will, no
liquid will result; but cool it to its critical temperature and a
liquid will be obtained in the same manner as was the water from
our steam.
This fact Faraday failed to observe, hence his failure in not
liquefying more of the so-called permanent gases. Dr. Andrews