Fantasy fiction; Utopian fiction; Utopias -- Fiction
In reality, it was not what would be called an instrument, but a
veritable manufacturing machine, turning out its products, small
though they were, in the most perfect manner, and ceasing in its work
but for a brief time during the whole twenty-four hours. This was the
decomposing machine which Colchis and Cobb had devised and made for
the concentrating of the ozone in the air. It was a rude affair, in
one sense of the word, for neither of them had had any experience in
making such machinery before; yet it was marvelous in other respects,
for it accurately performed the duty for which it had been constructed.
Standing upon four legs, was a glass case, about sixteen inches
square by twenty deep, in the upper portion of which was a separate
compartment with a glass bottom, having a hole some eight inches square
through its center; on each side of this hole, with the points about
one-sixteenth of an inch apart, were ten platinum wires, while the
opening in the top terminated in a common stove-pipe, which was run
into the chimney. Entering at the bottom of the case was a two-inch
pipe, connected with a large double-cylinder air-pump, which in turn
was coupled to a pony motor worked by storage batteries.
Along the other side of the room were twenty-four cases, each
containing four accumulators of under .005-ohm internal resistance.
These batteries were, individually, capable of developing 350 ampere
hours of work, and each cell had an electromotive force of eight volts.
A part of this battery was attached to the platinum points in the
inside of the case, while the remainder was used to work the pump, feed
the lamps in the house, etc.
The pump was an ordinary compressor of two cylinders, each cylinder
having a capacity of 1,000 cubic inches. The total power exerted was
3,000 pounds every six-tenths of a second, or about thirteen actual
horse power.
The air being received into the cylinder, was forced into the glass
case through the pipe in the bottom, and under a pressure of two
atmospheres; thus delivering, every three minutes, 200,000 cubic inches
of air. The air, in rising, passed through the aperture above and out
through the pipe, which was provided with a valve opening at a pressure
of thirty-five pounds per square inch. Between the platinum points, by
means of an automatic break, were continually being sent a series of
electric sparks, causing the air to be deprived of its ozone, which
fell in vapor to the bottom of the glass case, and there formed into
crystals of various sizes.
The machinery which Colchis and Cobb had erected was not perfect by
any means, and the consequence was that they could not save all of
the ozone in any given quantity of air. They did the best they could,
saving about fifty per cent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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