XVII. An experimental inquiry on the action of electricity on gases. —I. On the action of electricity on oxygen

Abstract

The following pages contain the result of a prolonged series of experiments regarding the action of electricity upon certain kinds of gaseous matter. The instrument of this inquiry, by aid of which the gases were submitted to this action, is the induction-tube of W. Siemens, an admirable and simple piece of apparatus, which enables us not only thus to operate upon the gases, but also to collect the products of the experiment with a view to their estimation and analysis. This instrument renders it practicable to utilize for the purposes of chemical investigation the vast powers of the coil of Ruhmkorff, and places at our disposal a new engine of research. The results at which I have already arrived are of sufficient importance to justify the anticipation that the changes thus produced by the action of electricity upon gases will prove to be a field of inquiry not inferior in interest to the electrolysis of liquids. In this first memoir I shall treat of the action of electricity upon oxygen gas, and in a subsequent inquiry, the results of which I hope speedily to lay before the Society, it is my intention to consider the action of electricity upon carbonic acid and carbonic oxide gas. The investigations of Schönbein in reference to ozone throw but little light upon its nature, mainly for the reason that this chemist neglected the use of the most fundamental instruments of chemical research, and rarely even attempted any quantitative valuation of its properties ; hence it is that we owe our most important knowledge upon this subject, not to Schönbein, who made it the study of his life, but to other investigators.