"^>Iri8^8Sr™  }  Ozonization  of  Air  by  Moist  Phosphorus.  29 
the  air,  if  it  be  true  that  ammonium  nitrite  is  formed,  irrespective  of 
any  nitrogen  compounds  pre-existing  in  the  atmosphere,  the  origin  of 
this  ammonium  nitrite  is  to  be  looked  for  in  other  causes  than  the  con- 
junction of  atmospheric  air  and  water-vapor  under  the  influence  of 
heat.  The  same  remark  applies  if  any  ammonium  nitrite  is  formed  by 
the  slow  oxidation  of  phosphorus  in  contact  with  air  and  water. 
Quite  independently  of  the  work  done  by  other  observers,  an 
extended  series  of  experiments  was  instituted  by  the  author  upon  the 
phenomena  which  accompanied  the  ozonization  of  air  by  means  of 
phosphorus.  In  the  earlier  trials,  attention  was  limited  to  the  question 
whether  oxidized  compounds  of  nitrogen  were  produced  or  not.  Subse- 
quently, the  research  was  made  to  include  all  other  by-products.  It 
was  deemed  important  to  purify  and  measure  the  air  used  and  the  ozone 
formed,  to  determine  the  amount  of  phosphorus  consumed  and  of  phos- 
phoric and  phosphorous  acids  produced,  and  in  case  they  were  really 
present  and  it  were  possible  to  estimate  them,  the  amounts  of  nitrogen 
compounds,  of  hydrogen  peroxide  and  ozone,  remaining  in  solution  in 
the  jar  and  wash-waters. 
The  phosphorus  ozonator  described  in  the  ''Journal  of  the  Ameri- 
can Chemical  Society,"  vol.  i,  p.  8,  was  employed  throughout  the  whole 
course  of  this  investigation.  The  most  important  result  which  the 
author  appears  to  have  arrived  at  is  that  the  chief  by-product  of  the 
ozonization  of  moist  air  by  phosphorus  is  not  phosphorous  acid  but 
phosphoric  acid.  It  is  generally  stated  that  the  former  of  these  two 
substances  is  the  one  principally  formed  under  these  circumstances^ 
This  may  be  true  in  the  sense  that  the  phosphorous  acid  is  first  formed 
and  that  it  is  gradually  transformed  into  phosphoric  acid  under  the 
influence  of  nascent  ozone.  The  author  could  not  determine  this  point 
very  readily  in  the  course  of  these  experiments.  It  is  certainly  an 
error  to  ascribe,  as  is  done  in  various  text-books,  the  dense  white  fumes 
seen  in  the  ozonizing  chambers  to  ammonium  nitrite — they  are  chiefly 
due  to  phosphoric  anhydride. 
The  author's  experiments  do  not  permit  him  to  say  that  no  ammo- 
nium nitrite  was  formed  during  any  period  of  the  ozonization  ;  they 
prove  merely  that  no  ammonium  nitrite  could  be  detected  at  its  close. 
If  therefore  this  body  were  produced,  it  must  have  become  oxidized  to 
:-mmonium  nitrate. 
As  to  the  cause  of  the  formation  of  ozone  itself  under  these  circnm- 
