Wayne Parley, age 10, of Mesa, Ariz  ,

Dry ice, alias carbice is frozen carbon dioxide  We tend to look down our noses at the carbon dioxide we breathe out as a waste gas and think we have no more use for it, Nothing could be farther from the truth  Plants need the carbon dioxide in the air to make their food and they could not thrive without it, And the thriving plant world provides us with the oxygen we breathe and all the food we eat,

Carbon dioxide is a non‑burning gas, heavier than normal air, You pan parry it around like water in a bucket and use it as a fire extinguisher  A fire trunk map carry tons of carbon dioxide to put out a sudden blaze, It can be blanketed around a blaze to keep out the oxygen which the fire needs for the burning process 

As dry ice, carbon dioxide does a  splendid cooling job at the soda fountain, It also provides the frothy bubbles trapped in sodas and soft drinks  With all these useful tricks, you may be sorry to learn that carbon dioxide is one of the rarest of gases in the air  In 2,500 quarts of ordinary air, there is only one quart of carbon dioxide  If we had to depend upon this natural supply, dry ice would be very expensive  However, carbon dioxide gas is given off from coke‑burning furnaces and from the huge vats in which yeast and other living things are fermenting,

The carbon dioxide for making dry ice is gathered as a by product from these and other chemical processes, The gas is then frozen solid, This is no easy job that can be done in a refrigerator or even in the freezer  For this gas refuses to freeze solid until it reaches a temperature of minus 110 Fahrenheit degrees 

The job is done in stages  First the gas is compressed, squeezed tight under the immense pressure of maybe 1,000 pounds to the square inch, This pressure reduces the gas to liquid 

If the pressure is released and the liquid left to stand by itself, it expands and turns right back again into carbon dioxide gas  It goes off to mingle with the air 

If, however, the chilly liquid is sprayed in a fine jet, only part of it evaporates and takes to the air  Some of it becomes even colder and turns into snowy white flakes  These flakes are trapped and pressed into small cakes of dry ice for the market,

Water freezes solid at 32 Fahrenheit degrees and a lump of ice is this cold or even colder  If you hold it a while, your fingers get numb or even frostbitten from this chilly ice, Dry ice is almost five times colder and if you touch it with bare fingers you are inviting frostbite as bad as a severe burn  A person who gets a wound from handling dry ice with bare hands is apt to say he has a dry ice burn ‑ though this is not strictly true, What he has is a serious frostbite,

When ordinary ice melts, it runs away in water puddles  What dry ice malts, it skips the watery state and turns directly into carbon dioxide gas and goes off into the air  It is not only colder, but neater than water ice,