Literature of Ozone. 363 



XXIX. — Lines of Discovery in the History of Ozone, with an 



Index of its Literature, and an Appendix upon the 



Literature of Peroxide of Hydrogen. 



BY ALBERT B. LEEDS, PH.D. 

 Read January 12th, 1880. 



LINES OF DISCOVERY IN THE HISTOKY OF OZONE. 



I. — ITS ORIGINAL DISCOVERY, SOURCES AND PROPERTIES. 



The history of ozone begins with the clear apprehension, in the 

 year 1840, by Schonbein, that in the odor given off in the elec- 

 trolysis of water, and accompanying discharges of frictional 

 electricity in air, he had to deal with a distinct and important 

 phenomenon. Schonbein's discovery did not consist in noting 

 the odor ; that had been done by Van Marum, more than half a 

 century before, but in first appreciating the importance and true 

 meaning of the phenomenon. For while Van Marum, Cavallo, 

 and others who followed them, connected the odor with the 

 electricity, calling it the "electrical odor," or " aura electrica," 

 and thus made it the property of an imponderable agent, Schon- 

 bein ascribed it to the peculiar form of matter operated upon. 



The hypothesis of Van Marum necessarily remained barren of 

 fruits ; that of Schonbein speedily enriched chemical science with 

 a host of acquisitions. 



Clinging tenaciously to the doctrine that there could not be a 

 variety of origin for one and the same odor, and that the kind 

 of matter producing it in every case must be identical, Schon- 

 bein fixed his discovery by giving to that one and certain kind 

 of matter, the name of Ozone. By adhering to this guiding 

 clue, he added as a third source of ozone, the action of moist 

 phosphorus upon air (1840-J843) ; and since that time, besides 

 electrolysis, electrical influence, and the action of air upon moist 

 phosphorus, no other sources of ozone of practical utility have 

 been discovered. 



The fact that Schonbein so stoutly insisted, and eventually so 

 triumphantly established, the identity of the ozone from whatever 



