IONIZATION OF ATMOSPHERIC OXYGEN More than 40 years ago we reported the negative charge acquired by a atoms or molecules of atmospheric oxygen. The experimental proof of this fact was published in 1933. Many years later the same phenomenon was studied by Marcel Laporte and other scientists, and today, it is completely accepted.
Rutherford's famous experiment of 1919 is very well-known. He demonstrated that bombarding the nucleus of the nitrogen atom with alpha particles changes the number of protons per unit in the nucleus, trans forming the nitrogen atom into an oxygen atom— an element found next to nitrogen in Mendeleev's Periodic Table. This was the first experiment in the "transmutation of elements." When a metal needle is subjected to a strong negative charge, electrons being to escape rapidly from its sharp point, i. e. , an avalanche of elec trons of high kinetic energy is caused. This process is enhanced by mole cules of atmospheric oxygen owing to the property of oxygen atoms to "extract" electrons from metals. This phenomenon is known as electron or electrostatic emission. We used sharp needles because the quantity of electricity is directly proportional to the square root of the surface curvature.
The electron avalanche is similar to a chemical chain reaction, or to the proliferation of microbes on a suitable nutrient medium. It produces a multitude of negative ions of atmospheric oxygen spreading very rapidly in all directions from the fine point ("ionization current" from the point).
As we have already seen, a single ionization of an atom renders it similar to the neighboring element in the Mendeleev Table, with respect to many parameters, and after double ionization it resembles the one after the next element. Since ionization affects mainly the electron shells it is unrelated to the complete "transformation of elements." Nevertheless, after negative ionization the oxygen atom develops a certain resemblance to the neighboring element, and after double ionization, the one after the next element in Mendeleev's Table. The oxygen atom has eight electrons in accordance with its atomic number (Mendeleev number). The negatively ionized oxygen atom gains one or two electrons. This means that after a single ionization some of its most important physical properties begin to resemble those of the flu or in e atom (nine electrons), while after double ionization it resembles that of neon (ten electrons).
Consequently, we decided to study phenomena of special biological significance.
Apart from the physical aspect (ionization) this also constitutes a physicochemical problem, since the principal physical parameters of an oxygen atom with ten electrons require further study. In addition to the electrical process related to the electron structure of the atom shells, physicochemical processes also affect biological reactions. These circumstances obviously complicate the study of mechanisms of the bio logical effect of air ions.
P o s it iv e oxygen ions have no effect, and may even prove injurious, when the oxygen ion is left with only seven electrons (corresponding to nitrogen) or with six electrons (corresponding to carbon). It is well known that carbon does not occur in the gaseous state. Nevertheless, an oxygen atom deprived of two of its electrons must resemble carbon in some of its properties. An oxygen atom with a double positive charge might combine with an atom of ordinary oxygen to form something resembling poisonous "carbon monoxide." Indeed, inhalation of positive air ions causes dyspnea, giddiness, marked lassitude, etc. This is another aspect of the problem requiring further study.
The statements made above may be tabulated as follows: These facts compel us to study the ionization of gases as a gical factor, disregarding the notion that charging is biologically inactive.
Furthermore, our attention should be focused on the biological effect of the electronic shell of oxygen carrying a single negative charge— the "fluorine." We use quotation marks because the oxygen of single negative charge occupies, as it were, an intermediate position between oxygen and fluorine; hence, its effects on the organism should be analyzed separately, especially in connection with the fairly extensive use of fluorine compounds in the chemotherapy of malignant tumors (A. Chizhevskii, L. Vasil'ev, E. Kiister, F. Dittmar, B. Sokolov, W. Eddy, L. Strel'tsov, R. Blay, I. Williams, L. Ziortini, L. Larionov, and others).