Samuel Elkins Phillips¹ to Christian Friedrich Schoenbein and Faraday to Christian Friedrich Schoenbein   8 March 1858 and c.9 March 1858

8 Bexley Place | Greenwich | March 8. 1858

My dear Sir

Are you sufficiently democratic to receive the congratulations of a self-taught working man on your recent Ozone researches - I should not seek thus to intrude myself, but that I have been for some years (tho with slenderest means) wading deeply in very kindred abstractions - I think the truth will come out more simply than you anticipate and more in the direction of Electro-polarity but you are working successfully & well & I would fain encourage rather than divert[.]

I have for some years past uttered (in private) the strongest denunciations against modern chemistry in general and the doctrine of types & substitutions in particular but I begin to think there may be a little truth in it. And however indignant may still be my feelings against the idea of 3 atoms of Cyanogen combining together (as such) to form a tribasic acid (Cyanuric) and generally against the modern notions of bi and tribasic acids, yet I cannot divest myself of the conviction that herein also there is a little substratum of truth which dimly perceived has led to such outlandish theories[.]

In studying the amide ureide carbydrogen and other forms of Ammoniacal type I have apparently gone far beyond Hoffman² & others and must admit herein some very few cases which old Electro chemistry may peradventure prove unable to explain, or at any rate for the time being[.]

And just so I feel in regard to the idea of double or multiple molecules[.]

Any thing more disgraceful than the current methods of halving or doubling atoms in order to bolster up preconceived hypotheses I cannot well imagine, yet still there are peculiarities that might extenuate much of hypothetic latitudinarianism- (a) (CO) is probably the radical of carbonic acid (CO)O b 2(CO) c in like manner that of oxalic acid (C(2)O(2))O d I claim to have discovered the law by which compound uses are constituted ( inic substances being those wh. act & react like chlorine B. I and other so called simple bodies) but your field of investigation involves a narrow sphere where I cannot clearly discern the way in[.]

it will not suffice to say that CO(2) is a binary compound of a+O’ and oxalic acid is another binary compound of b+a because chemical evidence leads to the idea that both acids are simple oxides (or protoxides) of their respective radicals, in other words that CO has a perfect equivalence to C(2)O(2) !!!!

Again these radicals in common with numerous carbydrogens, severally replace the H elements of Ammonia, to the preservation of a standard type and a generic series of properties & reactions - And in doing so it seems yet more marvellous that while (C(2)O(2)) or (C(12)H(5)) may in the Ammonia, each possess its own independant H equivalence, yet in another and perfect analogue, the 2 atoms are merged in one and both together replace only one H so that the radicals of oxalic and Benzoic acids similarly exemplify the same principle or anomaly. One is CO = 1 atom

CO

the other is C(12)H(5) = 1 atom

C(2)O(2)

With a given ammonia we might eliminate the C(2)O(2) & replace the same by H to the preservation &c &c &c With another we might eliminate (C(12)H(5))in like manner, but with a third containing both C(2)O(2) and C(12)H(5) we can eliminate neither their individuality is lost nor can we any how reproduce them without a destruction of the type &c.

With many other deficiencies it so happens that my experimental abilities are of the very meanest character, otherwise in this age of Rhumkorff coils I have long wished to look out upon the Ozone horizon of Atmospheric electricity somewhat thus

If a b c represent three rooms, B containing a powerful coil, so strong as freely to give sparks from a single pole, then if an expanded pole be placed in A and a similar expansion of the other pole of the secondary wire be placed in C in connection with an arrangement to secure a similar directive influence in A & C it does thence appear to me that A might be made very minus E while C might be correspondingly plus[.]

What would an electrician say of the A or C atmospheres knowing nothing of the intermediate conditions and what would the ozone test papers say?

With a reverence in great men who act as well as think increased by the conviction of my own practical littleness

I remain | Yours very truly | Saml E. Phillips

Schoenbein Esq

My dear Schoenbein

I do not know the person above - but he asks me to send the accompanying to you & I do so not for what they may be worth but as giving the [two words illegible][.]

Ever Yours | M. Faraday