HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1604, 17 November 1905, Page 3

HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

THE MAGIO KETTLE. Despite the unfavorable state of the weather last eveniDg, there was a large attendance at His Majesty’s Theatre on the occasion of the second performance given by the Magic KotSle and Cathedral Choristers Concert Company. An excellent programme was submitted, and each item was most enthusiastically received. The cathedral chorister boys created a moat favorable impression, the several numbers given by them boiog most capably rendered. The bioscope pictures were full of interest, whilst the performance by Alma the magician was of a high order of merit. As on the opening night, the liquid air demonstrations by Professor Anderson attracted a great, deal of atfe-n tion, but an unfortunate accident ooourred to prevent this portion of tbo programme being carried out, The company, how, ever, made ample amends, each person present being given a ticket for to-night’s performance, so that they will witness the magic kettle exhibition and have two entertainments for tbp one price.• Mias p) lß * 6 Peerless was most successful in her numbers, as also was Master Arthur Batchelor, The oompatiy is one of the strongest that has visited Gisborne for some time past, and thore should bo orowded houses for the remaining nights of the season. Arrangements have boen ma le for a' lpte train to Te Karaka to-morrow evening, so as to allow country residents an opportunity of attendiog.

%ln a paper by ths Pro’essor on tho sul§ jeot of liquid air, bo writes that although it has long been recognised that oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen have a liquid Btaie, until a comparatively recent data they defied ithe students of physical phenomena who endeavoured 'to efifeot their liquefaction. Qo obstinate did they prove; until the recent degrees of “ critical ’’ tomperaturo and'‘‘critibal" Damp of •• permanent ” eases was applied. Several methods havo been used, either singly or together, to secure the actual temperature. One method depends pntirely upon the beat which it is necessary to supply in order to evaporate a liquid, The boiling point of ft liquid is at that period when the pressure of the atmosphere acting upon its surface is equal to the pressure of its vapour. If vou pump away the vapour as rapidly as it m aterialises, and the pres-

j sure low, the liquid can be boiled at a j lemperaturo muoh lower than its normal j boiling point. Thus you can tako from J tho water itself tho heat necessary for I evaporation, whioh in this way is gradually | ally cooled, If tho air pump is efficient I and but a vory little heat ia allowed Ito leak in, the cooling may go so ] far as to freeze, tho water remaining. By I this method, beginning at tho normal I boiling point of water, the system would I have been cooled by means of evaporation j through lOOaeg. In 1877, howovor, two I eminent lights, Calllotet and Plotet, asI tonishod tho sotentifio world by announoI log that they had boon saocoaeful io liquefying gas, A few years later two Russians—Wroblewski and Obzowskl—converted almosphorio air into a liquid. ' These Russian oxperimontors used very muoh tho same methods es Picket and Oailletet, oxoept that their froszing mix* lures were different. At the peribd of whioh I am writing ail gases but ono had been successfully dealt with, and this gas, namely hydrogen, remained alone as tbe riddlo yet to bo solved. Theao soitn lats ] had fondly boliosod that they had obtained liquid hydrogen, but reoent research has oonolusively proved that thoy bad made a mistake—this triumph was roservod for

I Professor Dower, who announced the I solution so reoentiy as May, 1898 At the I present time every gas but one known to I tnan can bo roduaed by proper means to j tbo liquid form. Helium, that remarkj able elemont known for a long time to be I present in the sud, and only reoentiy disI covered on our own planet, has not yot I bean liquefied. Liquid air is a substance I of. a light blue oolor, with a speoifio gravity of about 94 at its boiling temperature, whioh is 834 deg. Fahr. below freezing No wonder, it is, that it boils on ioe ? Although its temperature is about 480 degrees oolder than the human hand, it may be freely touohed provided that a true oontaot is not established. This somewhat remarkablo phenomena oan bo explained by tho fact that the warmth of the flesh throws the liquid into a spheroidal slate and oreatos a film of atmospberio air between it and the flesh. I have shown how meroury immersed in the liquid is solidified and used as a hammer; how grapes oan be converted into marbles; whilst a bar of lead is robbed of its characteristic malleability aad given the hardness and ring of a nobler metal. It is a pretty experiment to pour liquid air over fruits, flowers, and other things to see how instantly they become frozen solid. Flowers beoome bo brittle that they may be broken with the fingers into tiny bits; beefsteak may be frozen so that it resounds like a boll when stcuok, and may be pulverised

I into powder. Though a liquid the magio I fluid does not oontain a drop of moisture. To see a kettle boiling on the stove illustrates still further tbe marvels of liquid air. The explanation is Bicnplo : I compared with the liquid air in the kettle the ioe is hot. And so it is that if one I breaks off a pieoo of the ice—of tbe “ hot I ice ’’—and throws it into the kettle, the I boiling—whioh may have subsided as the kettle cooled—at once redoubles in fury and the vapour rushes out in oloudß several feet high.