272 On the Difference between Active and Ordinary Oxygen. 



ozone. The. question is, What is the deportment of antozone, 

 as far as it occurs in pure oxygen ? 



According to Meissner's observations, antozonc, even in dry 

 and cold oxygen, is less stable than ozone, inasmuch as, unlike 

 this, it does not exist for an indefinite period, but gradually 

 disappears — that is, is changed into ordinary oxygen. Hence it 

 may be concluded that electro-positive oxygen-atoms, if they 

 ever unite with the molecules of ordinary oxygen to form com- 

 plex molecules, are less firmly retained in this compound than 

 the electro-negative. To say more about the molecular consti- 

 tution of antozonized oxygen than that which follows from the 

 above conditions, which must be fulfilled if the atoms in ques- 

 tion shall occur as active oxygen, appears to be too bold in our 

 present imperfect knowledge of the physical properties of ozon- 

 ized oxygen. 



And also regarding the question whether the atoms of ant- 

 ozone in pure oxygen retain their electro-positive condition as 

 unchanged as in chemical combinations with other substances — 

 for example, in peroxide of hydrogen and peroxide of barium — 

 or whether and under what circumstances they lose the electro- 

 positive, and approach the unelectrical condition, cannot, I think, 

 be decided with certainty from the facts at present known. This 

 question will have to be treated in connexion with that pre- 

 viously mentioned — that is, whether the atoms of antozone, like 

 those of ozone, unite with ordinary oxygen to form complex 

 molecules. 



If ozone and antozone are simultaneously present in pure 

 oxygen, a special molecular constitution may result, which is 

 different from those which occur when only ozone, or only ant- 

 ozone occur. For it is conceivable that when an originally Di- 

 atomic molecule has united with an electro-negative atom, it may 

 thereby tend more to unite with an electro-positive atom, and 

 that tetratomic molecules are thereby formed in which only two 

 atoms form a pair. Both the other atoms may be in such posi- 

 tions that they do not come into direct contact with one another, 

 and hence have no opportunity to unite and form a pair. In 

 this case the latter atoms would satisfy the conditions above stated 

 for active oxygen, that each can be separated as an individual 

 atom from the molecule, and with a force which is smaller than 

 that necessary to separate the atoms of a pair from one another. 

 By such an arrangement of the atoms, the observation made by 

 Meissner may perhaps be explained, namely, that antozone is 

 more stable in dry oxygen if ozone is present than if it is not — 

 a fact which at first sight seems to contradict the view that ozone 

 and antozone tend to unite and form ordinary oxygen. 



