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had little to do with it. l
182
Nonetheless Hall's keen interest in discovering the exact
relationship between health and the ozone factor was apparent in a lecture
\hich he gave on July 16, 1857, to a crowded audience at the Mechanics '
Institute in answer to the question frequently asked "What is ozone ?".
As far as can be ascertained, "ozone" was first mentioned in a Tasmanian
newspaper on February 1, 1851, when The Irish Exile and Freedom's Advocate
wrote:
A few years back Professor Schnbein (of Basle University , Germany)
inventor of gun cotton, discovered that the peculiar smell
which invariably attends the working of an ordinary electrifying
machine, is due to the formation of a new and most remarkab le
substance, which he termed "ozone" . The peculiar property of
this "ozone" is that it immediately deprives the most putrid
solid or fluid bodies of all disagreeable smell and sulphuretted
hydrogen is instantly decompose d by it. The excess or deficiency
of this ozone, it appears , is dependent upon the electrical
charges of the atmosphere . In an atmosphere highly charged with
electricity, there is an excess of ozone, and as the electricity
diminishes , so in the same ratio does the ozone .... an excess of
ozone produces influenza, just as a deficiency produces cho lera.
In short, ozone was one of the principal chemical agents evolved by
electricity, which , in the laboratory of the atmosphere, maintained the
purity of the air breathed by man and the animals .
The Daily News which pub lished Hall's long lecture 'verbatim' on
July 18 described it as "interesti.ng and instructive" , in which the nature
and properties of ozone were explained by the "learned lecturer" in a
scientific, but at the same time, clear, perspicuous and entertaining
manner .
\as at this til!le :
In analysis, the lecture revealed in simple clarity Hal l as he
his rich delight in science, with which he hoped . to
imbue others; his eagerness to incorporate its new , refreshing ,
invigorating discoveries into all his thinking and activities ;
forward- looking , prophetic vision, and his hopes for the future .
. . . . We may, however, be excused at this distance from the
foci of scientific light, if we only occasionally, and at
irregular intervals , catch a stray ray or two of new
discoveries , and even than ascertain that we are short of
many other beams , to perfect our know ledge of the spectrum
of new light which has dawned elsewhere . We are at the
world's end . But when modern science succeeds in presenting
us at our breakfast tab les the news of yesterday from the
old world, borne on the wings of the electric flash , then
his
1
Courier, June 17, 1857.