The problem of
delivery without pipe laying having been sufficiently solved, that of
the industrial production of gases could be confronted in its turn.
Liquefied sulphurous acid, chloride of methyl, and carbonic acid have
been successively delivered, to commerce. The carbonic acid is now
being used right along in laboratories for the production of an
intense coldness, through its expansion. Oxygen and nitrogen, prepared
by chemical processes, soon followed, and now the industrial
electrolysis of water is about to permit of the delivery, in the same
manner, of very pure oxygen and hydrogen at a price within one's
reach.
Before describing the processes employed in this preparation, we must
answer a question that many of our readers might be led to ask us, and
that is, what can these gases be used for? We shall try to explain. A
prime and important application of pure hydrogen is that of inflating
balloons. Illuminating gas, which is usually employed for want of
something better, is sensibly denser than hydrogen and possesses less
ascensional force, whence the necessity of lightening the balloon or
of increasing its volume. Such inconveniences become serious with
dirigible balloons, whose surface, on the contrary, it is necessary to
diminish as much as possible.
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