WHAT IS OZONE ?

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5371, 7 January 1929, Page 3

WHAT IS OZONE ?

AN AIR PROBLEM.

■ UNKbfI)WN HEALTH QUALITY.

HbUdayAmakej’s strolling along the esplanade at their favourite seaside resort sniff the odours of. decomposing seaweed, and utter with satisfaction to one another the wor.ds, “Ah, the ozone I” And, accordingly, they are content with their holiday, because they are quite certain it is doing them goodi

But, first of all, the seaweejd (containing a little iodine) has nothing to do with ozone, aim, .secondly, .the question of the great beneficial eflects of ozone is by no means so certain as may bq casually supposed.

lOzone, it is true, exists in all fr,esh air, and is, absent from the atmosphere of large cities, because dead or-, ganiq matter of many sorts removes it (says an English weekly journal). But it is scarcely present in large enough quantities in any atmospheie .to be smelt by even the most sensitive nostrils. Only when it is. in its pure form, undiluted .through the air., can its pungent oilour be realised. The name “ozone” means “smelling stuff,” and it is a gas, Sir e. Ray Lankester tells us, that may be formed in the; air when electric discharges take place. It was discovered by the scientists Tate and Andrews to be a condensed for ( m of thq elemental gas oxygen. In the open ai n . of. course, it is dispersetj in minute quantities, giving a special oxidising, activity to the •atmosphere, the actual quantity being only one part in 700,000. But the measure of its ( benefit to our health has not definitely been settled by experiment, If it wer.e great, it would be easy, presumably, to inaugurate “ozone rooms” in cities, fitted with special air of the right chemiqal properties, which would be cheaper, for most of us, surely, than hotel bills and train fares. But here the mysterious element of holiday places must be taken into account. The health-giving air of o.ur favourite resort may not be due; to ozone, but to who knows what other ingredient's of the atmosphere.

For the air, in. different places, can differ in so many subtle ways; in whetjiqr, it is still or windy; in whether it is cool or hot; in whether it is heavy or rarefied; or damp or dry.

Moreover, ozone is not * thq only claimant, of atmospheric properties, to'a power of-invigorating our bodies. Other, ingredients are perfume and volatile oils, such as ahe given off by pine trees ; and perhaps carbonic Heid and sulphurous, acid, in small quantities, and other, recently-discovered gases, such as argon and helium. Ozone, in its purer ,forms, can be used as a disinfectant. Gen'ejr.ated by an electric discharge, it is frequently used for the purification of the water supply of large towns by reasons of its oxidising properties,, and even by a few surg.eo.ns for the cleansing of abscesses. That aid to vanity in aging women, peroxide of hydrogen, with which fading hair, is revived' to golden tints, is often; i;t may addejd, described as “ozonised water” with more less correctness.

But there remains the air problem. It would be a remarkable change if our holiday reports .could, be acc.urate-i iy graded, by careful research, with thefa respective tonic air effects set down in the form of a prescription, recommended by doctors according to our. needs.