18 Transactions of the Kansas 



OZOXE IN KANSAS ATMOSPHERE. 



By Prof. W. K. Kedzie. 



At the eighth annual meeting of this Academy, I had the pleasure of presenting 

 a prelimintny paper upon the occurrence of ozone in tlie atmospliere of Kansas. 

 At the time of the presentation of that lirst paper, observations upon the subject 

 had extended over a lew months only ; but even for this short period the results 

 obtained were very striking, and compared very favorably with similar series of 

 observations in Eastern States, botli as to the constancy and amount of this im- 

 portant element of pure air. Tlie results now submitted are those obtained from 

 much more extended observation, for two years past, at various stations through 

 the State. 



The vital facts of the nature of ozone, as given at length in that first paper, may 

 be briefly summed up as follows : 1st. That ozone was discovered by Schonbein, 

 of Basle, in 1840, and that it is a coiuleused allotropic form of oxygen, having the 

 formula O3, and the equivalent 48. 2d. That it is produced in our atmosphere : — 

 A, By electricity, both l)y lightning and by silent discharges ; B, By all processes 

 of oxidation, whether by rapid combustion or slow decay ; C, By the evaporation 

 of large bodies of water ; Z>, By the process of vegetable growth, in which car- 

 bonic acid is decomposed in the leaf cells of the plants, the carbon retained and 

 the oxygen thrown out again, always commingled with a trace of ozone. 3d. It 

 was also shown that as rapidly as the ozone is produced in our atmosphere it is 

 consumed again in the oxidation of all decaying animal and vegetable matter ; by 

 which means the air around us is maintained pure and free from all the oftensive 

 and poisonous products of deca3^ Hence, that around large cities, where decaying 

 organic matter is constantly accumulating, ozone is only found in minute traces, 

 while in the free air of the country it frequently exists in very appreciable quantities. 

 It is also more abundant in winter than in summer, as during cold weather all pro- 

 cess of decay and oxidation, by which ozone is consumed, are at a standstill. 

 Generally, too, ozone is more abundant during the night than through the day, though 

 this rule is by no means invariable, and during warm weather the condition is 

 reversed altogether. 4th. It was finally shown from comparative records embracing 

 the months from January to August, 1875, that the indications of ozone are much 

 more abundant and strongly marked in the atmosphere of Kansas than in that of 

 mauy of the States further east. 



Since the presentation of this first paper, no further investigations have thrown 

 any new light upon the general nature of ozone, except some exceedingly interesting 

 results recently obtained by M. Berthelot, and presented by him in an article in the 

 February number of the " Anuales de Chimie et de Physique," for the present year. 

 M. Berthelot has, by a number of very beautiful experiments, here shown that 

 whenever ozone is formed by the action of the electric current upon oxygen, heat 

 is absorbed ; which heat is given out again when the ozone expends itself in the 

 process of oxidation of other bodies. This fact, it is claimed by Berthelot, ex- 

 plains its superior activity to that of ordinary oxygen. 



For the purpose of more fully investigating the occurrence of ozone in the atmos- 

 phere of Kansas, it was proposed that to any member of this Academy who would 

 lend his assistance in conducting carefully recorded observations there would be fur- 

 nished gratis, blanks, test paper and color scales. This offer met with a most generous 



