Ozone at once attacks rubber, rapidly destroying it.
An early step accomplished by Ostwald in this direction is to define ozone in its relation to oxygen, considering the former as differing from the latter by an excess of energy, measurable as heat of transformation, instead of defining the difference as diatomic molecules in oxygen, and triatomic in ozone.
In the divalent oxygen we meet with the modification called ozone, which, although unstable, changes but slowly into oxygen.
Ozone occurs, in an amount supposed to be associated with the development of atmospheric electricity (lightning, &c.); this amount varies with the seasons, being a maximum in spring, and decreasing through summer and autumn to a minimum in winter.
Chromic acid oxidizes it to acetic acid and ozone oxidizes it to ethyl peroxide.