Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1859 — A New Motive Agent [ARTICLE]

A New Motive Agent

In 1836, a Frenchman discovered the mode and succeeded in making solid carbonic acid, which up to that period had only been obtained in the state of gas and liquid. Carbonic acid is a singular substance, on account of the high pressure Which emanates from it in passing from the solid state; there is nothingequal to it in this respect, and it reverses the natural order entirely of other substances. It has the form of snow^trod also of crystals, which are so transparent that it is difficult to distinguish them from the pure glass bottle in which they may be kept. If solid carbonic acid is not enclosed in vessels of great strength, and sealed up perfectly tight, it passes into gas, not suddenly like gunpowder when a match is applied to it, but by degrees in the same manner that ice forms into water. Its vapor has an expansive force or pressure, which increases with its temperature in the ratio of 23 atmospheres at zero, 29 at 1® degrees, and 30 at 32 degrees. On this high expansive force, together with the slow evaporation of solid carbonic acid the ideas are founded for using it as a motive agent. The only difficulty in the application is the production ot the solid acid in sufficient quantities. If a demand was made for thia solid acid, it may be produced in any quantity. A railway would be the best thing to make the experiment on. Let a vessel of sufficient strength, filled with this acid, and provided with a stop-cork or valve, be fastened on ■ light carriage, having one person to direct its motion, and let this vessel be considered similar to a rocket with its mouth behind. When its valve is opened, the solid carboniw acid will assume- titae gaseoue- eendition, and its great pressure ia escaping will noie th*carriage in- the opposite direction, with a velocity a,nd force equal to the pressure and. the aera of the rocket-vessel. With the employment of a sufficient force of this kind, several railroad carriages- attached together iru front of the driving one may be propelled! along a railroad. By attaching such rocker to the gondola of a balloon.it mav he steareifi in any direction at pleasure. The principal advantage, however, of this motive agenU would be its appl.-ealioa to- railruade--