246 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



temperature. Of all gases, hydrogen is that which produces this effect 

 in the highest degree; then follow nitrogen and carbonic acid. In a 

 mixture of four parts of hydrogen to one of oxygen, as moist as pos- 

 sible, the formation of ozone is so rapid at 60 to 68 F., that, on ac- 

 count of the action occasioned by this body on the phosphorus, this 

 substance and the explosive mixture inflame. Ozone is not formed in 

 moist air at 32 F. ; the formation begins to be perceptible at 42 to 

 46 F. ; at 60 to 68 it is rapid, and occurs without danger. No ef- 

 fect takes place at common temperatures when the air is compressed 

 to a fifth or a sixth ; to obtain any action under these circumstances, 

 the temperature must be raised. The presence of certain gases, such 

 as olefiant gas, and nitrous vapors, in humid oxygen, when sufficiently 

 rarefied, and also in air, obstructs the formation of ozone. According 

 to Schonbein, when the vapor of ether is slowly burnt in air or in oxy- 

 gen, there is formed, among other products, a compound of ozone and 

 olefiant gas. 



Whan ozone is passed through a tube heated to 482 F., it is stated 

 by Schonbein to be entirely destroyed. (Prof. Horsford has shown that 

 ozone heated under the same circumstances to only 130 F. entirely 

 loses its properties. Editors.} The same is the case at common 

 temperatures with charcoal. Air which is strongly impregnated with 

 ozone impedes respiration, and produces catarrhal affections; small 

 animals are quickly killed by ii ; it quickly destroys organic coloring 

 matter, and also ligneous and albuminous substances. Pure and fresh 

 albumen remains unaffected by it. It combines chemically with chlo- 

 rine, bromine, and iodine when water is present, chloric, bromic, and 

 iodic acids being formed. Strongly ozonized atmospheric air, when ex- 

 posed to lime-water, produces appreciable quantities of nitrate of lime. 

 It may bo stated, generally, that nascent ozone, when in contact with 

 nitrogen and a strong base, produces nitric acid ; a small quantity of 

 nitric acid is also formed during the slow combustion of phosphorus 

 in the air. Ozone acts powerfully upon most metals, causing them to 

 assume their maximum of oxidation ; the action commences at 32 F. 

 (It also rapidly destroys India-rubber. Editors.) Ozone combines 

 directly with olefiant gas without decomposition ; it destroys sulphu- 

 retted and seleniuretted hydrogen, water being formed with the hydro- 

 gen of the acid, and sulphur being set free. It converts nitrous and 

 sulphurous acids into nitric and sulphuric acids. 



Ozone precipitates peroxide of lead from an alkaline solution of 

 lead, or from the acetate. It rapidly decomposes all the salts of man- 

 ganese, whether in a solid state or in that of solution, producing per- 

 oxide. Hence it results that a strip of dry paper impregnated with 

 sulphate or chloride of manganese is a reagent for ozone, the paper 

 becoming rapidly brown in an ozonized atmosphere. The best reagent 

 is a strip of paper coated with starch-paste and iodide of potassium. 

 A solution of yellow ferrocyanide of potassium is changed by ozone 

 into red cyanide of potassium. A great number of metallic sulphurets 

 are rapidly converted by this substance into sulphates ; such are the 

 sulphurets of iron, lead, copper, and antimony. According to M. 

 Schonbein, ozone is the most powerful oxidizing agent in nature. As 



