CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 2G3 



the town was found to exert a greater reddening effect than the air of tho 

 sea-shore. 



REMARKS ON THE NATURE OF OZONE. 



In the January number of the Philosophical Magazine there is a memoir 

 by Schonbein, in which he ascribes to ozone the very remarkable character, 

 that while it exercises a powerful oxidizing influence upon oxidizable sub- 

 stances, and even upon the noble metals, a moistened strip of paper colored 

 with binoxide of lead and immersed in ozonized air, is bleached in conse- 

 quence of the reduction of the binoxide of lead, the ozone being at the 

 same time destroyed, or rather converted into ordinary oxygen. 



This statement has confirmed Hr. Clausius in the opinion which he had 

 previously formed as to the nature of ozone, and consequently he has been 

 induced to make it known. 



In a recent memoir by Hr. Ctausius on " the kind of motion called heat/' 

 he has endeavored to account for the relations of volume existing between 

 the simple and compound gases, by the assumption that in simple gases 

 several atoms are combined so as to form one molecule ; that, for instance, 

 the molecule of oxygen consists of two atoms of oxygen. He is of opinion, 

 that under special circumstances, it may happen that among the number of 

 molecules in a given quantity of oxygen, some may be decomposed into 

 separate atoms. These oxygen atoms would differ in their behavior towards 

 other substances from those combined into molecules, and Hr. Clausius is of 

 opinion that those uncombined atoms are ozone. 



In support of his peculiar views, Hr. Clausius brings forward the following 

 data, in a communication to the Phil. Magazine: 



If electricity passes out into oxygen or atmospheric air, or if electric 

 sparks are discharged through either of these gases, ozone is formed; and 

 this formation is independent of the nature of the electricity, that is, whether 

 it be positive or negative. This action may probably be attributed simply to 

 the repulsive power of the electricity, by virtue of which the two atoms of a 

 molecule, being charged with the same kind of electricity, are driven apart 

 in the same manner as is observed with larger bodies. 



Oxygen, when separated from its combinations by electrolysis, under 

 favorable circumstances, is obtained in anozonified state. This is explained 

 thus : At the moment of disengagement, the atoms of oxygen are separate. 

 Most of them combine immediately upon the electrode, two and two together, 

 to form molecules, and here perhaps the electrode itself, when, for instance, it 

 is formed of platinum, exerts an auxiliary action. A small portion of the 

 atoms, however, remain in the separate condition, and this constitutes the 

 ozone with which the oxygen is mixed. 



Finally, a third mode of formation occurs when atmospheric air is in con- 

 tact with moist phosphorus. This process may perhaps be imagined to 

 proceed as follows: As the phosphorus combines with the surrounding 

 oxygen, a number of oxygen molecules, in contact with the phosphorus, 

 must be decomposed into their two constituent atoms; and it may happen 

 that the phosphorus does not combine with both of such atoms, but that 

 one of them, being removed from the sphere of activity of the phosphorus 

 through the motion caused by the heat developed, remains in the separate 

 condition. We know from electrolysis, that in the combination of hetero- 

 yencous atoms to a molecule, one part of the molecule is positively, arid tho 



