The Marvels of Liquid Air

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 232, 5 October 1904, Page 4

The Marvels of Liquid Air

When Professor Tripler was experimenting with the wonderful substance which is now known to scientists and laymen as liquid air, he little thought, says a recent issue of Science Sittings, tnat one of the results of his labours would be that of amusing an audience. At one time it was prophesied that liquid air would replace steam, but although the discovery showed very great possibilities), its cost' is to great thjat it cannot be put to general commercial use. Could the cost be reduced it w o uld work a great revolution in many branches of scientific business life, for it will do almost anything. It is due to the wonderful facility with which apparently impossible feats can be accomplished by the aid of liquid ai r that some caterers of public amusement have 'been induced to make , a study of it from a popular point of view. A representative was recently present at a wonderful performance by a well-known "magician," in which liquid air played a very important part. The stage was bare, Save for a coarse deal table, on which stood a square block of ice. There was nothing very strange about that, but immediately the magician placed a kettle on the ice it began to boil and bubble over. Then followed a host of seemingly ImposSjlbile, Ti-nd very amazing tntcks. Borrowing a hat, the performer proceeded to wash liifi handkerchief in the hat, using the latter as a washtub. The handkerchief was s o akod in what was apparently boiling water (but really 1 quid air), and yet within a minute it was returned to the owner perfectly dry and free from the least suspicion of moisture. The explanation lies in the fact that liquid air absorbs heat at an extremely rapid rate, and, therefore, soon disappears by evaporation. By the aid of lifluid 1 air the magician turned oil into ice in a test tube. He then applied a Kght to the frozen oil, and it humeri'like a candle, being literally burning ice. Grapes, too, were frozen into monster hailstones in a few seconds, and mercury, that evasive metal, was solidified into a block in half a minute. In- a chafing di'ih, over a hot flame, ico cream was made in the same short space of time. As a conclusion, the magician burnt the huge block of ico on which his kettle had been boiling, by simply pouring the liquid, air on to it.