O'Conor S.T. Liquid Air and Liquefaction of Gases. Theory, history, biography, practical application, manufacture

New York: Norman Wee Henley & Co, 1899. — 384 p.In Gulliver’s veracious account of his travels we read of the work done in the famous Academy of Logado. In one department fifty men were at work under 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, selecting the solidification of air as one of the impossibilities worthy of embodiment in his sarcastic romance.
During the present generation the triumphs in natural science have been most wonderful. The prosaic narration of what has been done sounds like the romancing of a Cyrano de Bergerac. We read of the hardest metals, such as iron and nickel, carried off in the gaseous state by carbon monoxide; the surgeon uncgncernedly has the interior of his living patient’s body photographed; the triumphs of chemical synthesis culminate in the production on the scale of manufacturing industry of a hydrocarbon from coal and water; Marconi follows a yacht race and telegraphs its phases to the distant shore over miles of water, without a wire; and to-day air is liquefied by the gallon, hydrogen and helium succumb to intense cold, becoming mobile liquids, and the last miracles of science may figure among her greatest.
The present work aims to tell the history of the liquefaction of gases, wherein the physicist has exceeded the fictitious achievements told of in Gulliver. The subject, extending over a century, is full of interest from the biographical as well as scientific standpoint, and it is hoped that the presentation of it with such scope will be acceptable to the reader.Physics.
What is liquid air?
The three states of matter: Solid, liquid and gaseous
Relations of pressure and heat to state assumed by matter
The critical state and its phenomena
Natterer’s tube
Physical units
Space, mass and time
Force and energy
Conservation of force an abandoned doctrine
Conservation of energy
Work a synonym for development of energy
Waste of energy and entropy
Possibility of utilizing the lower forms of energy of the universe.
Heat.
Heat and its measurement
Thermometers
The zero point
The Celsius or Centigrade thermometer scale
Fahrenheit’s thermometer scale
The absolute zero
Its basis
Coefficient of expansion of gases
Determination of temperatures in the liquefaction of gases
Different liquids used in filling thermometers
The air thermometer
The hydrogen thermometer
Details of its construction
Klectrolytic hydrogen
The hydrogen or air thermometer formula
The thermo-electric thermometer
Onnes’ instrument and details of its construction
Its calibration
The electric resistance thermometer
Calorimetric determination of temperatures.
Heat and gases.
The perfect gas
The ultra-perfect gas
Energy expended in heating a gas
Specific heat at constant pressure and at constant volume
Atomic heats and variations of same from equality with each other
Adiabatic and exothermic expansion of gases
Carnot’s cycle
The perfect heat engine
Available and unavailable energy
Unavailable energy rendered available by liquid air
Latent heat of melting, of vaporization, of expansion
Boiling a cooling process
Expansion cooling process
The spheroidal state
The Crookes layer
Experiments and illustrations
Utilization of the spheroidal state in low temperature work and in liquid air investigations.
Physics and chemistry of air.
The atmosphere as an ocean
What air is
Its constituents
Relations of air to living beings
The chemist’s and physicist’s view of air
Its constancy of composition
Carbon dioxide
Oxygen
Nitrogen, argon and other con-
The Royal Institution of England.
The Royal Institution
Its origin and objects
Count Rumford
Sir Humphry Davy
The Pneumatic Institute
Davy’s experiments in inhaling poisonous gases
His engagement as director of the Royal Institution
His views on the utility of liquefying gases.
Michael Faraday.
Michael Faraday
His early life
Early devotion to science
His introduction to Humphry Davy
Attendance at scientific lectures
Engagement at the Royal Institution
Injuries from explosion in the laboratory
Kuropean tour with Davy
Rivalry of scientific men
Davy and Faraday as rivals
The liquefaction of chlorine
Davy’s share in the experiment
Davy’s opposition to Faraday’s election as fellow of the Royal Society
Dr. Paris and the liquefaction of chlorine
Faraday’s descriptions of his liquefactions
Explosions
Northmore’s priority published by Faraday
Notes on Faraday’s liquefaction of gases
His exhibition of Thilorier’s apparatus
His later work in liquefying gases
Discovery of the magnetism of oxygen gas
His death
Bent tubes as used by Faraday
Experiments with use of bent tubes
The Davy-Faraday Laboratory.
Early experimenters and their methods.
Perkins’ claim to have liquefied air
Its absurdity
Northmore’s liquefaction of chlorine
Rumford’s experiments as commented on by Faraday
Babbage’s experiment in a drill hole in limestone rock
Monge and Clouet’s alleged liquefaction of sulphurous oxide
Faraday’s liquefaction of chlorine
Stromeyer’s liquefaction of arseniureted hydrogen
Faraday’s bent tubes for liquefaction of gases
Manometer for use with them
Experiment in a straight sealed tube on the liquefaction of chlorine
Davy’s suggested method
Cagniard de la Tour
His bent tube experiments
D. Colladon
His apparatus as still preserved
Thilorier
His discovery of solid carbon dioxide
A fatal explosion
The improved Thilorier apparatus
Johann Natterer’s apparatus
His experiments
Loir and Drion’s solidification of carbon dioxide
Thomas Andrews, of Belfast.
Raovut Picrer.
The life of Raoul Pictet
His education
His ice machines
Disputed priority
Honors awarded
His apparatus for liquefying gases
Description of its operation
Temperatures of the cycles of operation
His dispatch of December 22. 1877 to the French Academy
Regnault’s statement
Hydrogen
His dispatch of January 11. 1878 to the French Academy
Olszewski’s comments on the hydrogen experiment
Pictet’s arrangement of pumps
His desire to produce liquid oxygen in quantity
Comments on his work
The liquide Pictet.
Louis-Pavul Cailletet.
The life of L. P. Cailletet
His education
Honors received
His modification of Colladon’s apparatus
Accidental liquefaction of acetylene by release
Description of his apparatus
How the apparatus was filled
The full apparatus with hydraulic press
Liquefactions of nitrogen oxide
Of carbon monoxide and oxygen mixed
Liquefactions of the same separately
His letter of December 2. 1877 to the French Academy
Liquefaction of nitrogen
Of hydrogen
Rival claims of Cailletet and Pictet
Mercury stopper method
Manometers
Original methods of testing
Hiffel tower manometer
Carbon dioxide experiments
Mercury pump
High pressure gas reservoir
Ethylene as a refrigerant
Closed cycle method
Accelerated evaporation
Electric conductivity at low temperatures
Comparison of thermometric methods
La Tour’s experiment repeated.
Sigmund von Wroblewski and Karl Olszewski.
Wroblewski’s life
Banishment from his native country
Early scientific work
His association with Olszewski
Study of Cailletet’s methods
Their apparatus
Defective position of the hydrogen thermometer
Liquefactions of oxygen, carbon monoxide and nitrogen
Ethylene data
Solidification of carbon disulphide and alcohol
Determination of the critical pressure and temperature of oxygen
Liquefaction of hydrogen
Use of a thermo-electric thermometer
Electric resistance of metals at low temperatures
Two liquids from air
Olszewski’s individual work
Apparatus for producing liquid oxygen in quantity
Comparison of platinum resistance and of hydrogen thermometers
Determination of hydrogen constants.
James Dewar.
Dewar’s life and education
His associates
Controversies with Cxilletet as to priority
Karly liquefaction apparatus
Solid nitrous oxide as a refrigerant
Royal Institution apparatus
Cooling cycles employed
Laboratory apparatus
Vacuum vessels
Air as a heat conveyer
Experiments with incandescent lamps
Reflection of ether waves from vacuum vessel
Keeping power of vacuum vessels
The Dewar vacuum
Its extraordinary perfection
Analogy with population of earth
Experiment in slow diffusion of mercury vapor
Incidental production of vacuum vessels
Elasticity and strength of metals at low temperatures
Apparatus used Hlongation of metals when stressed at low temperatures
Determination of specific and latent heats of liquefied gases
Gas-jet experiments
Low temperatures thus obtained
Freezing air
Large jet apparatus
Analysis by liquefaction
Liquefaction of fluorine
Liquefaction of hydrogen and helium
Experiments to show the intense cold of liquid hydrogen.
Charles E. Tripler.
The life of Charles E.K. Tripler
His early experiments with gas motors
Mechanical difficulties encountered
His electrical experiments
Chemistry
His work in fine art
Exhibition of his paintings
Return to the investigation of compressed gases
Liquefaction of air
He endeavors to utilize the low grade heat of the universe
Simplicity of his apparatus
The plant
The compressor
General plan of operations
Capacity of his plant
How he transports liquid air
His lectures
Raoul Pictet in Charles E. Tripler’s laboratory.
The Joule-Thomson effect.
First attempts at liquefying gas
Joule and Thomson and their discovery
Coal a cheap chemical
Substitution of mechanical for chemical energy-
Sir William Siemens’ regeneration of cold
Self-intensive refrigeration
Negative Joule-Thomson effect
Mathematics of the theory
Conditions of pressure for economical application.
The Linde apparatus.
Linde’s apparatus
The simplest form of apparatus
Its operation
Its storing of air at atmospheric pressure
Avoidance of atomization and waste
Subdivision of pressure-drop
Laboratory apparatus
A feature of inefficiency in it
Its power of liquefaction
Continuous oxygen-producing apparatus
Date of Linde’s first successful use of his apparatus.
The Hampson apparatus.
Hampson’s apparatus
Its general features of construction
The jet and regulating device
Thermal and mechanical advantages
Data of its operation
Use of cylinders of compressed gas instead of pumps
Application of preliminary cooling to the air or gas to be liquefied.
Experiments with liquid air.
Experiments with liquid air
Formation of frost on bulbs
Filtering liquid air
Dewar’s bulbs
Liquid air in water
Tin made brittle as glass
India rubber made brittle Descending cloud of vapor
A tumbler made of frozen whisky
Alcohol icicle
Mercury frozen
Frozen mercury hammer
Liquid air as ammunition
Liquid air as basis of an explosive
Burning electric light carbon in liquid air
Burning steel pen in liquid air
Carbon dioxide solidified
Atmospheric air liquefied
Magnetism of oxygen.
Some of the applications of low temperatures.
Frigotherapy
The frigorific well
Pictet’s experiment
Effects of the first trial of the system
Medieal-uses of liquid air
Critical point as test of purity of chemicals
Purification of chemicals by low temperature crystallization
Low temperature distillation
Regulation of chemical reactions by cold
Liquid air explosives
The principle of their action
Liquid air in electric power transmission
Liquid air as a reservoir of energy.