Ke Alakai o Hawaii, Volume VI, Number 4, 25 Mei 1933 — WHAT'S IN THE AIR? [ARTICLE]

WHAT'S IN THE AIR?

Nitrogen— Wns. I\liscellaneous gases—l%— tons. Carbon extracted from of <he alr would covcr West Virginia 14 £eet deep wlth eoal, Tiiere is noUtūng with whieh we eome iw- cloēer contact, eontiii(aaJiy, than air, aithough—except on very windi' days-~we are har«ciiy conscious ifcg. presence. Yet most ql „U£ are quite unttwsbre of nature of. this vital »ecessity. Air, it is ccamii<»ily understopd, is composed of two invisibic gases: oxygen, whieh is the essential ,element to our breathing, and iutrogein, whieh serves to dilute it. Tliis mueh is generaliy known, but it is only part of the truth. About on« per cēitt Of the 6Amogphere is ,the. "ine'rt" gas argon. Small fractioils om pHr cent Of the atmosphere are exceedingly Important eompoiuiel vapors of water and car~ bon dioxide. Without them, aU Ufe would cease by drying up. While carbon dioxide is popfUlarly supposed to be a poison, it is hstrdly more so tha» w&ler (one may drow*i iri carbon dioxiue, it is is tnie) i and this gas i« the "vitjaj alt" of ptasit life, 'on whieh, directly or lridirectly, ahimal life subsists. In. addition to these, there are elemental g&ses hydrogen a.nd helluui wliieh, being very mueh lighter than the' £ 6ther constltuents of the p.ir, are four.d in quantity only in its tip*per regions, as weH as neon, v/hich is familiar to us principally by its use m. glass tubes } for fiery red signs, The mass of thē is enormous. ThJn as is seems to ns, h amounts to no less tKafo fifty-six hundred million millions of toas —for there is a ton oftt over every square foot"of the earth's surface. "' To liquefy air tsur»& it into a ctftd ftl\iijsh flquid, at about 320 degrees below zero. f%(Jirenheīt, and about" £s heavy as water; that is to say, more than 800 times dense as gas we are used to breathing. Conge&lXng all the alr of our into !iquia wouia produ.ee a.frigid deluge drowmng the surface of the pianet 35 feet deep, or the whole t7nited States 2,£lQ feet deep. I On a planet dep4yed of its iiQthiiig eould Hve.' It is tnie that the greatest whiclj lias £ees reached by observationai instrumenU is about.'2Ō jniles abc>ye vhe srot:r.d. Ninty-nine per cent cf the matter thē Mmosjsb£re lies belov> :I_u leyel; concerning the one per eeni scie»t|sts gLre eon_~ £#Iled to rely upon their of "raet.eop, of. the aurora, spectroscopic work ahd calculatiqns based on supposltions. Not until the rocket or other nieans of sending a veru.de through a near-vacuūin» is developed, will the mysteries of the uf>permost air be thoroughly exp!ored.—E.SJM.