AN OCEAN OF AIR.

North Otago Times, 22 May 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

AN OCEAN OF AIR.

Wc are living at the bottom of an ocean of air 200 miles deep. The total weight of this ocean on the earth is over five trillions of tons, and at the sea level it exerts a pressure of nearly fifteen pounds to every square inch of surfaceEvery full-grown man carries sixteen lons of this weight, yet wc do not . feel this pressure, because it is exerted in a" directions, upward a nd downward, inward and outward, just as in the case of the fish.

However, should some inquisitive being from the heavens reach down into Ihe ocean of air, trap one of us, and lift him to the surface, the victim would feel exactly like a fish out of water. Men who have climbed tall mountains have experienced symptoms showing that tho air pressure within them is much greater than the pressure without. No=c-blccding sometimes occurs, and occasionally the pressure suites to cause blood to ooze from the ears and rorcs of-the skin. At thj same time one is taken with nausea and vertigo, and experience dilliculty in breathing, because the rarefied air docs not contain as much oxygen as he is accus-lo-ncd to breathing. If one should climb a big mount am slowly he will experience no unpleasantness, because the pressure in the hotly will have had time to pass of and equalize the exterior presI sure; Of course, a point can be ! readied where there is not enough ■ oxygen to support life.