Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 55.djvu/55

Rh applications. We may look for these in four directions, to each of which a short paragraph may be devoted:

First, as a cooling agent. Low temperature is marketable. To be sure, the demand for the extremely low temperature that can be produced by liquid air does not exist to-day, but this concentrated low temperature can be diluted to suit conditions. The only question to be answered in this connection is, then, What is the cost of cold produced by liquid air? It is impossible for any one to answer this question at all satisfactorily at present. It can only be said that this is what experimenters are trying to find out. It appears, however, that they are on the way to cheap liquid air, and that as the processes are improved the price will become lower and lower.

Second, for the construction of motors. There is no doubt that liquid air with its enormous power of expansion can be used as a source of motive power just as compressed air is. In the case of steam it is necessary to heat the water in order to convert it into steam, and to heat the steam to give it the power of expansion. The cost is, in the first instance, that of the fuel. Given a certain amount of heat, and a certain amount of work is obtained. If liquid air is used, the problem is much the same. Engines must be run in order to compress the air which is to be liquefied. Every gallon of liquid air has been produced at the expense of work of some kind, low, the question arises at once. What proportion of the work that was put in that gallon of liquid air in the course of its production can be got out of it again? It is certain that all of it can not be got out unless all that we have ever learned about such matters goes for nothing. In dealing with the problem of the application of liquid air as a source of motive power we are therefore doubly handicapped. In the first place, we do not know the cost of the liquid when produced on the large scale; and, in the second place, we do not know the probable efficiency of a liquid-air motor. I say "we do not know." Perhaps Mr. Tripler and the others engaged in the experiments on this subject do know approximately. We certainly can not blame them for not telling us all they know at this stage of the work. It is unfortunate, however, that such a statement as was recently published in a popular magazine should be allowed to gain currency—apparently with the sanction of Mr. Tripler. The statement referred to is to the effect that ten gallons of liquid air have been made by the use of three gallons of liquid air in the engine. If that means that the ten gallons of liquid air are made from air at the ordinary pressure, the statement is in direct conflict with well-established principles. If it means that the ten gallons of liquid air are made from air that has already been partly compressed, we must know how much work has been done before the liquid-air engine began. Leaving out of