EECENT PROGRESS IN PHYSICS. 



391 



Fig. 84. 



is filled with air containing ozone, and closed witli a cork, (Fig. 84.) 



having two holes bored in it. Through one 



of the holes a tube passes nearly to the 

 I bottom, having a funnel at its upper end ; 



through the other hole a tube passes, which 

 , merely goes through the cork, and above 

 ; the cork is bent horizontally, ending in a 

 . tolerably fine opening ; water being poured 

 , through the funnel in a regulated stream, 



the air containing the ozone is driven out 



through the point of the other tube. This 



point now behaves exactly like a metallic 



point from which an electrical brush issues. 



By holding the nose to it the electrical odor 



will be observed ; the iodide paper held 



before it turns hlue^ and a platinum plate 



exposed to the jet is polarized electro-nega- 



iivehj. 



We have seen above that all the effects of 



ozone disappear when the point emitting the 



brush is heated, in like manner all the re- 

 actions of ozone disappear as soon as the horizontal part of the escape 



tube is strongly heated by a s{)irit lamp. The air which escapes from 



the opening of the hot tube has no longer any smell, it will not turn 



the iodide paper blue, nor polarize the platinum plate. But all these 



effects reappear on the cooling of the tube. 



§ 98. Chemical naiure of ozone. — Schonbein, the discoverer of ozone, 

 has observed and investigated for years, with unwearied industry, the 

 relations of this remarkable substance, and has found that it bears the 

 greatest resemblance to the hyper oxides ; he has finally come to 

 the opinion that ozone is nothing else than a gaseous peroxide of 

 hydrogen. *^ 



Ozone is therefore formed by a further oxidation of the vapor of 

 Avater contained in the air. Thus it is explained why water, or rather 

 the vapor of water, is absolutely necessary to the formation of ozone. 

 In perfectly dry air ozone cannot be obtained by means of phosphorus. 



Electricity prepares the vapor of the atmosphere to oxidize further 



■-' At the present time, however, the view of nearly all of the chemists who have studied 

 this subject is different from that given by the author. It is now generally conceded that 

 ozone is nothing but oxygen, but there are two different vi»^ws in regard to its nature ; 

 according to one, ozr.ne is simply oxygen thrown into a condition of activity by the instru- 

 mentality of electricity or other agents above named. 



The other view considers ozone as formed of two or more equivalents of oxygen. If, as 

 some hold, gaseous oxygen be o^, it could be easily shown that this double molecule under- 

 going decomposition, (even by reducing agents as phosphorus, the e.ssential oils, &c.,) sets 

 free Oj^, (oxygen in the nascent state.) which might unite with o^ to form 03, similar in 

 properties to S o^, (sulphurous acid,) sulphur and oxygen being elements capable of re- 

 placing each other to form analogous compounds as in the sulphurets and oxide.s. 



We deem it moreover quite possibL', in a measure, to reconcile the views of Schonbein 

 with those last named, but this whole subject, being a purely chemical question, would be 

 out of place in a report upon physical science, and has only been mentioned because the 

 bare statement in the text might lead those not familiar with the matter into erroneous 

 views. G. C. S. 



