Liquefaction Of Gases Research Articles

The Rise and Development of the Liquefaction of Gases

The Rise and Development of the Liquefaction of Gases

Liquid Air and the Liquefaction of Gases

Liquid Air and the Liquefaction of Gases

The New Process for the Liquefaction of Air and other Gases

The New Process for the Liquefaction of Air and other Gases

The Liquefaction of Gases

THE object of the communications on the liquefaction of gases, which have recently appeared in NATURE and the Philosophical Magazine, is to depreciate; the work of Cailletet and Pictet, to smother away the first-class work of the deceased Wroblewski to annihilate myself, and thereby to magnify the claims for originality of Prof. Olszewski. In spite of the mistakes inevitable to pioneers, the work of Cailletet and Pictet must always be credited with originating research in this department. To show my appreciation of such investigation, and to give it a wide publicity in the year 1878, a Friday evening address was devoted to the work of Cailletet and Pictet, during the course of which I showed for the first time in this country the working of the Cailletet apparatus. Similarly, in the year 1884, an address was given on the work of Wroblewski and Olszewski, in the course of which I illustrated for the first time in public the liquefaction of oxygen and air, showing the boiling point, &c, by means of a simple form of apparatus which did not involve the use of the Cailletet pump as employed by these experimenters. To deliver a lecture on the work of other people is generally considered a mark of honour, and as usefully diffusing a knowledge of the same. The critic has for some object omitted half the opening sentence of this address, which runs as follows:—

On the Liquefaction of Gases—A Claim for Priority

I HAVE read the letter of Charles Olszewski, and but for your courtesy in drawing my attention to it would have allowed it to pass without notice. Considering the Royal Society, in the year 1878, awarded the Davy medal to Cailletet and Pictet for their achievements of the liquefaction of the so-called permanent gases, it is hardly likely I could put forward in England any claim for such a result. A reference to the Proceedings of the Royal Institution between the years 1878 and 1893 will be sufficient to remove the suggestion that the apparatus I use has been copied from the Cracovie Bulletin of 1890. The work of the late Prof. Wróblewski has been fully acknowledged in England, and I am not aware of any injustice done to Charles Olszewski on account of the alleged omission of his subsequent investigations from public notice.

On the Liquefaction of Gases—A Claim for Priority

EVER since the year 1883, I have been almost uninterruptedly engaged in the examination of the behaviour of the so-called permanent gases at very low temperatures. During the first few months I performed my experiments together with the late Prof. Wróblewski; afterwards, during a series of years, I was alone; and more lately, I went through several investigations with Prof. Witkowski. The results of my researches I published in the Polish, French, and German languages, whilst they were going on; in the Reports of the Cracow Academy, of the Vienna Academy, in Wiedemann's Annalen, and in the Comptes rendus. My researches are thus well known to the scientific world, and I may add, without boasting, that they have been acknowledged by learned men of different nationalities; they were also known to Prof. Dewar, who repeated them several times, and always confirmed my results—those, for instance, on the absorption spectrum and the bluish colour of liquid oxygen, and on the liquefaction of ozone.

On the Liquefaction of Gases and Other Effects of Extreme Cold, and on Some Phenomena of High Temperature

On the Liquefaction of Gases and Other Effects of Extreme Cold, and on Some Phenomena of High Temperature

Societies and Academies

PARIS Academy of Sciences, August 4.—M. Rolland, President, in the chair.—Reply to two notes of M. Wroblewski on the subject of the liquefaction of hydrogen and other gases, by M. L. Cailletet.—On the influence of temperature on the property of absorbing and losing moisture, possessed by vegetable earth and other substances exposed to contact with the atmosphere, by M. Th. Schlœring.—On the change in the excentricities of the planetary orbits due to the concentration of matter in space, by M. Hugo Glydén.—Report of Messrs. Gosselin, Vulpian, Marey, Bert, Pasteur, Richet, Bouley, and Charcot on various communications received by the Academy on the subject of cholera. An examination of forty-three letters, notes, and memoirs has led to no results calling for special consideration. The chief remedies proposed are hypodermic injections of chloride of pilocarpine, the internal application of sulphate of quinine, of oxygenated water, sulphuric lemonade, &c. More important are the views of Dr. Duboué of Pau, who recommends as a preventative the strengthening of the endothelial and epithelial systems by the daily administration of two doses of 0.25 grain of pure tannin prepared with ether. His curative method consists in restoring the circulation by copious intravenous injections of an artificial serum to which should be added one grain per litre of pure tannin.—Observations of the Barnard comet made in Algiers, by M. Trépied.—Note on the distribution of the facules on the solar disk during the year 1883, with tabulated results, by M. P. Tacchini.—Description of a fixed astronomic telescope, being a modification of M. Lœwy's “equatorial coudé,” by M. G. Hermite.—An account of the method by which the absolute value has been determined of the horizontal component of terrestrial magnetism at the observatory of the Park Saint-Maur, Paris, by M. Mascart.—Description of a new apparatus for collecting the snow of carbonic acid required in producing low temperatures (one illustration), by M. Ducretet.—On the decomposition of white cast iron by heat, by M. L. Forquignon.—Note on the composition of the cyanides of mercury, zinc, and of some other elementary compounds of cyanogen, by M. G. Calmels.—On the nature of the visual faculty, and on the respective parts played by the retina and the brain in the elaboration of optical impressions, by M. H. Parinaud.—Researches on the biological rôle of phosphoric acid, and on the part played by this substance in the formation of the animal tissues, by M. A. Mairet.—On the permanent immunity from charbon of rabbits vaccinated with the attenuated virus of this disease, by M. Feltz. Seven months after the vaccination six rabbits so treated and six others were operated on with a strong preparation of the virus. The six fresh animals all died of charbon, while the six that had been vaccinated remained unaffected by the second operation. But when again treated, eighteen months afterwards, they yielded to the virus, and all ultimately perished. The author infers that the operation preserves its efficacy in the rabbit not longer than eighteen months.—Description of a filter which yields absolutely pure water free of all animal life, by M. Ch. Chamberland.—On the anatomical origin of spermaceti; description of the so-called spermaceti case, by MM. Pouchet and Beauregard.—Memoir on the carboniferous measures of the Central Pyrenees, by M. L. Lartet.—On the composition and quality of coal in connection with the nature of the plants from which it has been formed, by M. Ad. Carnot.—On the oxychloride of calcium, and the simple and chloruretted silicates of lime, by M. Alex. Gorgen.—On the origin of the phosphorites and of the ferruginous clays in limestone districts, by M. Dieulafait.—Account of the effects produced by a stroke of lightning at Campan on July 24, by M. A. Soucaze. A house near the telegraph station was entered through the closed door by a living mass of flame, which, after a few seconds withdrew by the same way without injuring any of the inmates or damaging the furniture.—A hypothesis on the temperature of the zone of the solar protuberances, by M. Tardy. The author suggests that in this zone the hydrogen is rendered luminous by an atmosphere of oxygen, in which case the temperature would be that of the fusion of platina, while the temperature of the inner zone would be still higher.

IV. On the physical constants of liquid hydrochloric acid

In a paper read before the Royal Society, on June 18th, 1879, I described the results of some experiments made with liquid acetylene, obtained by compressing the gas in one of M. Cailletet’s ingenious pumps for the liquefaction of gases. The tensions of the saturated vapour then obtained were so entirely different from M. Cailletet’s results, that it appeared to me to he possibly due to a slight impurity in the gas, probably a trace of mono-bromethylene which always occurs in the red copper compound of acetylene, and is very difficult to completely eliminate. I therefore prepared a quantity of the silver compound (which can be obtained entirely free from mono-bromethylene) by passing acetylene prepared in the same way as formerly, viz., by the action of alcoholic potash on di-bromethylene, into an ammoniacal solution of nitrate of silver.

XVIII. The physical properties of liquid acetylene

The hydrocarbon acetylene, being the only one of its numerous class which can be formed synthetically by the direct union of its constituent elements, has an especial interest for the chemist. The chief physical constants of this substance are unknown, although its polymerised modification, benzene, has been very thoroughly studied in its physical relations by Regnault. Having one of M. Cailletet’s ingenious pumps for the liquefaction of gases at my disposal in the laboratory of the Royal Institution, Professor Dewar suggested a series of accurate determinations of its physical properties in the liquid state, and the present communication deals with the critical point, the tension of the vapour of the fluid at various temperatures, together with the corresponding densities and coefficients of compressibility.

The liquefaction of gases, and the artificial production of low temperatures

This is a mainly anecdotal account of some selected chapters from the 100 years history of refrigeration. Much of it is based on my own personal experiences and, consequently, it is far from being a balanced story.I begin with the first liquefaction of oxygen and try to show that the experiments of Cailletet and of Pictet were the forerunners of all future cryogenic methods, even of magnetic and nuclear cooling.The origins of magnetic cooling and its first experimental realizations are recalled next, followed by brief descriptions of some idiosyncratically chosen episodes from the first 20 years of magnetic cooling. This part of the paper ends with a purely personal assessment of the achievements of magnetic cooling and of its future.Nuclear cooling is treated in the same way but there is one difference: most of its history is not ancient but modern and I have therefore made only passing references to the latest developments, leaving it to the practitioners to tell their own story.

VI. On the liquefaction and solidification of bodies generally existing as gases

The experiments formerly made on the liquefaction of gases*, and the results which from time to time have been added to this branch of knowledge, especially by M.Thilorier, have left a constant desire on my mind to renew the investigation. This, with considerations arising out of the apparent simplicity and unity of the molecular constitution of all bodies when in the gaseous or vaporous state, which may be expected, according to the indications given by the experiments of M. Cagniard de la Tour, to pass by some simple law into their liquid state, and also the hope of seeing nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen, either as liquid or solid bodies, and the latter probably as a metal, have lately induced me to make many experiments on the subject; and though my success has not been equal to my desire, still I hope some of the results obtained, and the means of obtaining them, may have an interest for the Royal Society; more especially as the application of the latter maybe carried much further than I as yet have had opportunity of applying them.