74 LETTEES OF BEEZELIUS 



After all my attempts to isolate ozone had failed, 

 and I had never got any results save oxidations, I 

 was induced to reconsider the conditions under which 

 ozone is produced. Five years ago, when I prepared 

 ozone voltaically, my first idea was that it was a body 

 in a higher state of oxidation ; and so starting again 

 from this view I investigated the part which water 

 plays in the production of the substance. I found 

 that by the action of atmospheric air on phosphorus 

 in contact with water at 30, ozone is produced in 

 larger quantities than in any other case, and moreover 

 that its production is continually diminished as the 

 air approaches nearer to dryness. Just the same 

 results were obtained if I performed the experiment 

 with a mixture of ozone and carbonic acid, but no 

 ozone was produced if oxygen alone, or nitrogen, or 

 carbon dioxide was allowed to act on the phosphorus. 

 It seemed therefore as if ozone was produced from 

 oxygen and water, and as if nitrogen played no 

 essential part in its formation. 



As much as five years ago I published my observa- 

 tions that the discharge of electricity from a heated 

 point did not produce the so-called electrical smell, 

 and that the voltaic current was not able to set free 

 any ozone from heated water. 1 Similarly I found 

 that a heated platinum strip held in the discharge 

 from a cold point receives no negative charge, just as 

 happens when the point is hot and the strip cold. 

 Therefore, proceeding on the hypothesis that ozone 

 may be a higher oxidation product of hydrogen which 

 1 Poggend. Annal., vol. 1. (1840) p. 618. 



