IS THE KEELEY MOTOR A FRAUD ?

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 124, 10 September 1875, Page 8

IS THE KEELEY MOTOR A FRAUD ?

It is not safe to conclude -with the ' Scientific American,' and the vast body of incredulous unscientific Americans, that there is nothing in Keeley's new motor — but fraud. He was the most indifferent, of smatierers who, -when a young enthusiast, named Morse, went lecturing through the country to very indifferent audiences about his new motor, electricity, could not prove that the telegraph was in the first place impious, and in the second impossible. It may be — we do not cay that it is so — that Keeley has found something worth looking after. His secret has not been authoritatively made known, but it is said to be the expansive power, of carbonic acid gas. At 32 degrees Farenheit carbonic acid is liquid under a pressure of 36 atmospheres. It can be solidified by being placed under greater pressure in a freezing mixture. From this solid proceeds a vapor with the most amazing expansivo properties. This subject has been investigated by a cor- | respondent of the •' Savannah News,' who gives the following table :—: — ',- At 5 degrees Fabr. the pressure in pounds per square inch is 372. I At 10 degrees Fahr. the pressure in pounds per square inch is 403. At 20 degrees Fahr. the pressure in pounds per square inch is 560. At 40 degrees Fahr. tho pressure in pounds per square inch is 697. At 45 degrees Fahr. the pressure inpounds per square inch is 1080. i The solidification of carbonic acid gas was first achieved by Thilorier, jin Pans. The strength of tho gas may be judged from the fact that a cast-iron apparatus of enormous strength burst during one of his experiments, killing an attendant. The bursting of soda-water fountains, which sometimes happen, is an instance of the wonderful power of this gas. The mysterious casuality iv Boston a few weeks ago, in which a large tenement building, the first floor of which was occupied by a drug-store, was, blown to atoms with great loss of life, leaving no trace of the source of mischief, was beyond doubt an illustration of what Keeley's motor can do if left to itßelf. The reservoir of carbonic acid gas exploded. Here is a power far beyond that of eteam. -Is it certain that nothing can be done to make it manageable ? The chemistries say that the tension given off by the vapor from the. solidified gas is higher than that from any other known substance^*They differ, apparently, with the correspondent of the 'Savannah News ' quoted above, in that they say that the tension of the vapor is developed by lowering instead of raising the temperature, as usual with other gasea. Here is the power beyond a doubt ; has Keeley harnessed it ? We catch a resemblance in the description of his machine to the apparatus used by Thilorier. A fine hair tube plays a prominent part in the Keeley machine. Thilorier discovered that, if ho allowed the liquid gas to escapo through a small tube into a brasa box, au. evaporation followed so powerful that it solidified tho rest of the gas. This solid is the seat of tho expansive power that gas dis- ■ plays. Carbonic acid gas is very cheap .^t&caii be made out of marble and vinegar ;it can easily be liquified?;^ and. liquified, will freeze itBelf ; frozen, it can be made to produce v a vapor " stronger than that from any other known substance . If Mr Keeley has not found out how to domesticate this creature, some other inventor will be likely to do it before long. — ' Pilot.*

" Twelve poitnds for a threshing machine !" exclaimed a> toy when he saw the card on one for sale. " Why, mother only pays five shillings a pair for her slippers \" Plato' ts school wa3 not open alike to the youth of both sezea though one might suppose there were young ladies among hia pisciples, we hear bo much of Pla-tonic attachments,