Jacques Wardlaw Redway

“ CH4 +4O = CO2 +2H2O The normal proportion of carbon dioxide in the air is about 3⋅3 parts in 10,000 of air. In manufacturing districts, where coal is used for power-fuel, the proportion is greater. In the bracing air of a cold wave it is materially less. It is less during winter, when the temperature is below freezing and the ground is snow-covered, than in summer. Over the land the proportion is slightly greater at night than in the day-time, and during foggy weather it is materially greater than in dry weather. ”

“ All the fresh waters of the earth are derived from the sea by a process that is clearly one of distillation; and life as it is organized on the earth depends upon this process. Even a slight change in nature’s method of distillation would be followed by profound changes in the distribution of life. ”

“ It is a constituent of natural gases, and of certain volcanic gases. The proportion increases as the height in the air increases. On account of its lightness meteorologists are of the opinion that the rapid movement of the earth in space is constantly throwing it off into space. At all events, there seems to be sufficient evidence that it is the chief if not the sole constituent of the outer part of the atmosphere. ”

“ The proportions change with increasing altitude. The nitrogen disappears at a calculated height of 84 miles; the oxygen, at about 60 miles. Water vapor is calculated to exist at an altitude of 60 miles, but it is not observable above 7 or 8 miles. Carbon dioxide is not observable above an altitude of 2 or 3 miles; theoretically it may extend to a calculated height of more than 15 miles. The proportion of hydrogen and helium, on the other hand, increases with altitude, and they probably form the outer layer of the atmosphere. ”

“ The mechanical ventilation of buildings has helped matters but very slightly. Air drawn through ventilating shafts has not the same therapeutic qualities as sunlit air coming through open windows into living rooms. ”

“ Various diseases of the densely peopled regions of Europe and America are practically unknown among peoples who live habitually out of doors. Tuberculosis is essentially a disease of modern civilization. ”

“ It is slightly below normal over cities, as compared with open spaces. In crowded auditoriums the proportion of oxygen sometimes falls to 20 per cent; in mine tunnels it is sometimes as low as 18 per cent. Candles burn with difficulty with the oxygen content at 18 per cent; and human life cannot long exist with the proportion of oxygen as low as 17 per cent.
Atomic weight 15·88; sp. gr. 1.106; temperature of liquefaction — 182° F (119° C) at 51 atmospheres.
Carbon dioxide (carbonic acid gas) , CO2, is the heaviest gaseous constituent of the air. ”

“ Although the proportion of water vapor mingled with the air differs from time to time, the per cent of total volume decreases from the equator toward the poles. The average annual per cent at the equator is 2.63 ”