Middletown Transcript

Ozone.

The books tell us that this is a gaseous substance the true nature of which is not fully understood. It is so named from its peculiar odor, which resembles that produced when repeated electric sparks, or the electric discharge from a point, is passed through the atmosphere. Ozone is supposed to be, by chemists, a super-oxide of hydrogen. Without positive knowledge of its nature or production, it is supposed to be evolved by electricity, and to follow electrical phenomena such as that which accompanies the Aurora Borealis. The brilliant displays of this phenomenon on Friday and Saturday nights last, was followed on Sunday by the presence of ozone in the atmosphere, plainly distinguished by the sense of smell; and the peculiar haze in the atmosphere, which continued from Sunday till Thursday, was probably dependent upon the same cause. The mysteries of Nature, though long engaging the most astute minds, are yet sealed and hidden to a great extent. Much has been learned and discovered by the power of investigation and analysis, but much more remains to be learned. With all his knowledge man is yet but in the rudiments of his studies, and has learned just enough to show him how little he does know, and what a vast terra incognita, so to speak, lies unexplored before him.