Synopses & Reviews
LIQUID AIR AND THE LIQUEFACTION OF CASES A PRACTICAL WORK G V1N he entire history of the liquefaction of gases from the earliest times of achievement to the present day the biography of the great investigators the manipulation of liquid air and liquefied gases experiments with the same - the modern mes of liquefaction processes and of their products the utilization of the nitrjgcn and oxygen oi the air, the rare gases, helium, argon and njon, and their utilisation, and the latest developments in this field of industrial science, arc aho treited. BY T. OCONOR SLOAN K, Ph. D. Authoi ut Arithmetic ol Klcctrkit, Klccti icity Smij ilu 1, Ku. FULLY I L L U S T R A T E V rtllRD ED11ION KLVISKD AND MUCH UNLARGI-J LONDON CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED 1920 COPYRIGHTED 1919 BY THE NORMAN W. HENLEY PUBLISHING Co. COPYRIGHTED 1899 BY NORMAN W. HENLEY Co. PRINTED IN U. S. A, Composition, Electrotyping and Press Work By The Publishers Printing Company New Yoi k PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION. Over twenty years have elapsed since air was lique fied on the large or manufacturing scgle. It was handled in ordinary Containers, dippers, tumblers or barrels just like water, and with far less precaution than is exacted by the acids of commerce. As it inevitably evaporated and if confined would develop an enormous pressure, the vessels employed to con tain it were necessarily open. The story of liquid air and of the liquefaction of other gases reads like a fairy tale. But the world has become so satiated with miracles of science that it has almost forgotten how to wonder. In Gullivers veracious account of his travels we read of the work done in the famous Academy of Logado. In one department fifty men were at workunder the superintendence of the universal artist, as one of the illustrious investigators was called. These men were engaged in various occupations. Some were condensing air into a dry tangible substance by extracting the niter, and letting the aqueous or fluid particles percolate. So says the great Dean, select ing the solidification of air as one of the impossibili ties worthy of embodiment in his sarcastic romance. At first when the manufacture of liquid air on the large scale was developed the question arose of what PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION. to do with it, for it seemed that so wonderful a thing must have its uses. It was found that the nitrogen escaped by evaporation much more rapidly v than did the oxygen, and in this selective evaporation was seen a basis for the manufacture of oxygen, letting the supposedly useless nitrogen go to waste. This saved at the best one-fifth of the liquid. Now it is the nitrogen which is wanted, and the oxygen is saved as a by-product, and about four-fifths of the air are utilized in the production of what has become the main product. The present jp aims to tell the history of the liquefaction of gases, wherein the physicist has ex ceeded the fictitious achievement told of in Gulliver s Travels. . The subject, whose history extends over more than a century, is full of interest from the biographical and historical as well as scientific stand point, and it is hoped that the presentation of it from such viewpoints will be acceptable to the reader. For assistance in the compilation of this work the authors thanks are due to more than one investigator. His requests for information met with quick response from such men as Raoul Pictet, L. P. Gailletet, Henri Dufour, Charles E. Tripler and James Dewar. It is especially to these pioneers in the difficult paths of investigation that his and the readers grateful acknowledgments must be given. OCTOBER, 1919. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PHYSICS...