Genre:

Abstract

Publications abstracted:

Ray S Baker McClure's Magazine

Subjects:

Invention, Steam-power, Electricity, Magic, Gas Chemistry, Physics, Industrial Chemistry, Futurism, Imperialism, Military Technology

    Announces one of the 'most astounding prospects ever opened up by scientific invention', which 'more completely eclipses the mechanical marvels of steam and electricity than the slave-mill and stage-coach' by promising 'at almost no cost any amount of motive power'. This 'new substance', though, is in fact 'a very old friend—nothing less than the common air, only in a liquefied state. Liquid air is the new mechanical magician'. The 'discoveries' in gas liquefaction made since the 1870s by Raoul-Pierre Pictet, Karol S Olszewski, and James Dewar have now been 'developed [...] into the production of a new and potent industrial force' by the American inventor Charles E Tripler. (244) This low-temperature motive power could mean that, amongst other things, 'the difficulties of tropical climate for white men are overcome', for with 'a house at any temperature he pleases, the Englishman can live and thrive and bring up children in the very hottest part of the earth' (245).