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CHEMISTRY: G. L. WENDT 
THE OZONE FORM OF HYDROGEN 
By Gerald L. Wendt 
Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago 
Communicated by W. A. Noyes, September 22, 1919 
In spite of its having only a single valence bond, hydrogen seems to 
form an active variety bearing the same relation to ordinary hydrogen 
that ozone bears to oxygen. The chemical activity of this form of 
hydrogen is not attributable to single free atoms, since the charac- 
teristics of the atomic form are well known, and different from those of 
this ozone form. 
Professor Sir J. J. Thomson,^ in working with positive rays in 1912, 
showed the existence in a hydrogen discharge tube of particles with a 
molecular weight of 3. He gave the tentative symbol of X3 to this 
material, and investigated its chemical properties in some detail. He 
found that it combines with oxygen under the action of hght. It is 
also destroyed by sparking with oxygen, as well as by being heated in 
a quartz tube with copper oxide. In the absence of oxygen the gas 
could be heated to a high temperature without destruction. Attempts 
to obtain spectroscopic evidence of the new form of hydrogen failed, 
only the usual spectrum being evident. 
An investigation begun in 1914 with the co-operation of Professor 
William Duane^ showed that hydrogen becomes chemically active under 
the influence of alpha rays from radium emanation, and that when this 
active variety is formed there is a distinct contraction in volume. The 
active hydrogen attacks sulphur, forming hydrogen sulphide. This 
reaction is the simplest test for the presence of the active modification : 
The hydrogen is activated by the rays; it is allowed to pass over sulfur, 
and then passes over a strip of filter paper moistened with lead acetate 
which it blackens, due to the hydrogen sulphide present. Other re- 
actions are equally simple and characteristic. It reduces neutral per- 
manganate solution to give a precipitate of manganese dioxide; acid 
permanganate is entirely decolorized, giving a manganous salt. Arsenic 
is reduced to arsine; phosphorus gives phosphine. There is some action 
even on mercury, giving a lustrous yellow compound, presumably a 
hydride, which decomposes on heating. This activity is not due to the 
presence of charged molecules or ions, as these can be completely re- 
moved by an electrostatic field of a thousand volts per centimeter 
without destroying the chemical activity of the gas. 
