IS THE AIR VANISHING ?

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XX, 15 May 1897, Page 619

IS THE AIR VANISHING ?

A series of experiments is being conducted in Faris which demonstrates to the satisfaction of scientists that the atmosphere which surrounds the earth is gradually disappearing. These experiments are with balloons, and they are known as aerostatic ascents. The French savans Bssatfon and Hermite have been conducting them. The balloon which makes the ascent is called the aerophile. It is conical in shaped It is almost sharp pointed at one end, while the other is formed of a steel cap which fits over an aperture through which the gas passes from the retort into the receiver when the balloon is in process of being filled. Below the reservoir hangs a double platform, which looks not unlike the old fashioned hanging book case. In the front of the top section of the platform is an instrument which registers the speed which the aerophile is making, while just back of it is a device called the meteorograph, which registers the changes in the atmosphere. A dial registers the highest point attained, while another mechanism records the intermediate altitudes. In the rear of the platform, and attached to both sections, is an automatic camera that takes accurate photographs of atmospheric scenes and conditions at different heights from the earth. There is also an apparatus that imprisons specimens of air at different altitudes. Its reservoirs, when the aerophile leaves the earth, are airtight and exhausted. Therefore, when a reservoir is opened at a desired height there is nothing to mix with the specimen of air that rushes into it. The latest in this series of experiments with the aerophile was made a few days ago and resulted most snccesfully. The aerophile rose with extraordinary rapidity to an immense height, fully 10,000 metres. The highest temperature recorded was sixty degrees. The balloon remained in the air two hours and travelled a distance of 102 kilo metres. All the recording apparatus worked successfully, and while the results have not been definitely announced in all particulars, they, in the minds of many scientists, establish the fact that the inventors have contended for — that the balloon will throw startling light on the question of atmospheric disappearance. The i e ophile, as the balloom has been named, is sometimes sent aloft merely arranged so that at a certain period of time the gas vent will be partially opened, the gas escape and the monster settle to the earth. At other times it is like the captive balloon sent aloft at the end of a great pile of rope and pulled down whenever the experimenters desire. It is, however, only when the invention is permitted to soar to great height that there is a possibility of securing the results which the scientists hope for. The importance of the facts learned from experiment with the balloon, scientists say, can hardly be overestimated, they indicate, it is thought, the conditions which will prevail at the end of the world. The atmosphere mingles continually with the water and the rocks, and by this action continually diminishes its density. Thus its gauzy envelope which surrounds us is brought closer and reduced, and one day, say the scientists, it will without doubt disappear completely, as it has already done from our neighbour the moon. It should be stated that the apparatus which the balloon contains for securing specimens of the rarefied air at great heights is the idea of M. Cailletet. This has proved the most successful feature, for it has worked to a charm, and the result of the analyses of the air it contains will from time to time indicate precisely the exact changes that have taken place in the atmosphere.