Among them was a paper about the atmospheres action on water, when left out in the
open, and what happened to the water in a chemical sense.
A researcher by the name Schønbein had noted, that water, that was left to evaporate out
in the open air, formed saltpetersour ammonia from the airs nitrogen, hydrogen, and
oxygen.
Schønbein had moistened some linnen cloths with distilled water and afterwards exposed
them to air, so that the water could evaporate slowly. When the cloths had dried, he took
them, and soaked them in distilled water. Some substance was now drawn out of the
cloths and dissolved in the water. It showed itself to be saltpetersour ammonia, as he
called it, with the chemical formula NH
4NO2.
The researcher now explains, that what happened was, a socalled “nitrification”. Two
nitrogen atoms from the air had joined with four hydrogen atoms in the following way:
2 N + 4 H= N.NH4. This again becomes a saltpetersour ammonium salt: NH4NO2, in that
two oxygen atoms attach themselves to the compound.
In this way, saltpetersour salts are formed in the ground, says Schønbein. The same
takes place in plants, from whose surface a continual evaporation takes place. In this way
the plants form the nitrates needed for further growth.
At the end of the article about water evaporation Schønbein adds, that it shouldnt be
necesarry to add artificial fertilizer to the ground, for Nature is able to handle that issue all
by herself. Indeed!
...forse è meglio che lo traduca...o ne faccia un sunto.
Un ricercatore Danese del 1800 ha notato che bagnando di acqua distillata un panno di lino e lasciandolo evaporare all'aria aperta si formano dei sali di nitrato di ammonio.
La stessa cosa (e forse qualcosa in più) ovviamente deve accadere a quei panni stesi, pieni di rugiada in tempo di luna piena.
Quindi la rugiada non è solo acqua, ma intrisa dello "spiritus mundi", che circola incessantemente attorno a noi.
PS: guarda che sono un novizio e quindi quello che dico prendilo con le pinze.