364 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
CHEMISTRY. 
Ozone as a Cause of the Luminosity of Phosphorus. — Various writers, and 
especially Joubert, have called attention to the connexion of the phenomena 
of phosphorescence with ozone. To learn something of the nature of this 
connexion, Chappuis has studied the effect of ozone upon the luminosity of 
phosphorus in the presence of oxygen. Fourcroy long since observed that 
in pure oxygen, at a temperature of 15° C., and under atmospheric pressure, 
phosphorus is not luminous in the dark. Chappuis now finds that under 
these conditions a bubble of ozone introduced into the bell-jar produces 
phosphorescence, though only momentarily, the ozone being destroyed. 
Moreover, it is not the vaporization of the phosphorus which determines 
the phosphorescence, but the combustion of this vapour, the entire space 
occupied by the oxygen at first appearing luminous, the solid becoming 
so only after all the vapour has been burned by the ozone. Two cylin- 
ders, one containing air, the other pure oxygen, were inverted over two 
dishes containing potassium iodide and starch solution; a fragment of 
phosphorus was plunged into each gas in contact with the liquid. In the 
first the phosphorus became luminous, and the solution became blue. In the 
second neither phenomenon appeared. Whenever the phosphorescence 
appeared ozone was present ; and whenever ozone was absent there was no 
luminosity. Moreover, the author calls attention to the fact that certain 
bodies which have the power of promoting this luminosity of phosphorus 
are precisely those bodies which destroy ozone or are destroyed by it. Oil 
of turpentine, for example, which is the most active, destroys ozone com- 
pletely. In a balloon containing air, phosphorus, and turpentine, a bubble of 
ozone produces light for a second only, the ozone being destroyed by the 
turpentine, but burning a part of the phosphorus-vapour also. On adding 
the ozone the luminosity extends throughout the space, and at last the solid 
phosphorus only remains luminous. Hence M. Chappuis regards the pro- 
duction of the luminosity of phosphorus in oxygen as one of the most deli- 
cate of the reactions for ozone, and proposes to employ it in subsequent 
researches. — {Bull. Soc. Chim. : Amer. Journ. Soc., August , 1881.) 
A supposed New Metal. — Mr. T. L. Phipson, from some experiments of 
his, infers the existence in commercial zinc of a new metallic element, to 
which he proposes to give the name of Actinium , on account of certain 
actinic phenomena of which he assumes it to be the cause. He says that 
the white sulphide of zinc prepared by precipitating the solution of the 
commercial metal with sulphide of barium, and washing, drying, and 
calcining the precipitate, sometimes possesses the curious property of 
changing colour under the influence of the direct rays of the sun, becoming 
first brown, and finally slaty-black, in from twenty to thirty minutes, but 
resuming its white colour when placed in darkness. Contact with air is 
necessary for the production of the changes of colour, and the intervention 
of a piece of glass prevents the blackening from taking place. The supposed 
new metal is characterized by Mr. Phipson as having a white sulphide, 
rendered black by the reducing action of the solar rays, and becoming white 
again in the dark by oxidation. {Comptes Rendus, August 22nd, 1881.) 
New treatment of Sulphur. — MM. de la Tour du Breuil suggest {Comptes 
