September i, 1898J 



NA TURE 



417 



how the wine of a given vintage will ultimately turn out. 

 Unfortunately the experiment has not yet been tried, 

 owing to the difficulty of finding a suitable colleague. 



At a recent discussion on ozone at a meeting of the 

 Society of Chemical Industry, the general opinion 

 seemed to be that whilst there are, doubtless, possibilities 

 of usefulness for ozone, nothing has yet been done which 

 is likely to induce manufacturers to invest much capital 

 in plant for its production ; it is therefore interesting to 

 learn that successful attempts have already been made to 

 employ this interesting substance in medicine. It has long 

 been known that ozonised air acts as a preservative of flesh, 

 preventing and arresting putrefaction ; and the simplicity 

 of its mode of action, already alluded to, has naturally 

 suggested its great suitability for use as an oxidiser and 

 antiseptic in medical practice. Therefore one hears, 

 without surprise, from those who have tried it, that in 

 ozone we have an agent which is likely to be of real 

 value in the treatment of diseases which are associated 



provided with a narrow tube at each end, so that a current 

 ' of gas may be passed between the two test-tubes. If 

 the inner tube of such an apparatus be filled with dilute 

 ! sulphuric acid and connected with one of the electrodes 

 of an electrical machine, and if the outer tube be plunged 

 I in a bath of dilute acid which is connected with the 

 I other electrode of the machine, whilst air or oxygen is 

 I passed through the apparatus, a glow or a shower of fine 

 I sparks will act on the gas, and charge it more or less 

 I strongly with ozone ere it escapes. 



i Ozonisers such as the above have been employed 

 ( in many of the chief researches on ozone, and prob- 

 ably give the best results when small or moderate 

 volumes of oxygen are to be dealt with, but for 

 work on the large scale this form of ozoniser does not 

 give equal satisfaction. For such work it has been 

 proposed to replace the glass tubes by sheets of glass 

 coated with tinfoil or silvered ; whilst recently a new 

 departure has been made by Mr. Andreoli, who replaces. 



■-.^^' 



with the existence of organisms, or where the use of an 

 oxidiser is indicated ; for example, in the treatment of 

 phthisis, of unhealthy wounds, and of some cases of 

 an.'cmia, and for purifying the air of dwelling rooms, 

 hospitals and public buildings. 



But before ozone can play a really important part in 

 the above or other directions, the earlier modes of making 

 it must be improved upon, and its production cheapened. 



Ozone, as has already been said, was first noticed 

 in air which had been exposed to the sparks of elec- 

 trical machines ; but only very small quantities can 

 be obtained in this way, and it is better to expose the 

 air to a sort of electric rain composed of showers of 

 very fine sparks, such as were employed by Andrews, or 

 to the so-called silent discharge in one of the various 

 forms of the " Siemens' induction tube." This in its 

 simplest form consists of a long thin test-tube sealed at 

 its open end into a slightly larger tube, the latter being 



NO. 1505. VOL. 58] 



one of the plane or curved electrodes by a conductor 



: carrying numerous points. For manufacturing purposes 



Mr. Andreoli recommends the use of serrated grids made 



of aluminium, and carrying as many as 17,760 points 



on every grid. Each grid is placed opposite a sheet of 



aluminium with a sheet of glass interposed, the whole 



being bound together by wooden clamps (see Fig. i). It 



: is claimed that with such an arrangement of suitable 



: dimensions, 10 kilos, of ozone can be produced at the 



small cost of thirteen shillings and fourpence. As 



the air and apparatus employed are not cooled, the 



! charges of ozone are probably not very strong, but for 



many purposes this does not seem to be a matter of 



great importance. A more serious objection to the 



I system lies in the fact that the employment of metallic 



I point bearing grids seems not unlikely to favour the 



; production of comparatively large sparks which, if they 



should occur, would undoubtedly cause the formation of 



