Creative Books

"
Then the young inventor went into details. He told of the
ponderous machinery needed to condense air to a form
approximating water, and spoke of the terrible pressure exerted
by the liquid atmosphere.
"Anything that you would gain by having a slow-speed motor and
smaller propeller blades, would be lost by the ponderous air-
condensing machinery you would need," Tom told Mr. Damon.
"Besides, if you could surround your propellers with a strata of
condensed air, it would create such terrible cold as to freeze
the propeller blades and make them as brittle as glass.
"Why, I have taken a heavy piece of metal, dipped it into
liquid air, and I could shatter the steel with a hammer as easily
as a sheet of ice. The cold of liquid air is beyond belief.
"Attempts have been made to make motors run with liquid air,
but they have not succeeded. To condense air and to carry it
about so that propellers might revolve in it, would be out of the
question."
"You think so, Tom?" asked Mr. Damon.
"I'm sure of it!"
"Oh, dear! That's too bad. Bless my overshoes, but I thought I
had a new idea.


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