50 THE ALUMNI JOURNAL 



and ennobles brass to gold, distilled an evaporated mixture of urine 

 and sand, and obtained, not the ''elixir of life," but — Phosphorus. 

 This yellow waxy solid which shone so mysteriously in the dark, 

 and burned with such a dazzling- light, was exhibited in the courts 

 of Europe and attracted the attention of lords and ladies who had 

 never previously evinced a startling congenital predisposition for 

 scientific pursuits. Phosphorus is used in medicine as a sexual 

 aphrodisiac, and it would be interesting to know if'it was the Merry 

 Monarch and his royal revellers who discovered this therapeutic 

 fact. 



For a hundred years the peculiar phosphorescent element re- 

 mained axhemical curiosity, costing about sixteen ducats an ounce. 

 But in 1771, Scheele — building on Gahn's observation that Phos- 

 phorus is a constituent of bone-ash — published a method still used 

 in preparing the Light-Bringer. Bones are burned to remove all 

 animal matter, and the remaining Calcium Phosphate is heated with 

 hot Sulphuric Acid, producing Phosphoric Acid and Calciumx Sul- 

 phate. The acid is then strained from the sulphate, concentrated, 

 mixed with charcoal and dried in an iron pot. Water escapes and 

 Metaphosphoric Acid remains. The mixture is then transferred to 

 a fireclay retort, strongly heated, and under the water appears the 

 desired phosphorus : 



3H,SO, 

 [Sulphuric Acid] 

 SCaSO^ 

 [Calcium Sulphate] 



+ 3H,0 

 [Phosphoric Acid] [Metaphosphoric Acid] [Water] 



4HPO3 + 12c = 2H2 + 12CO + P4 



[Metaphosphoric Acid] [Carbon] [Hydrogen] [Carbon Monoxide] [Phosphorus] 



Its principal modification is the red or amorphous Phosphorus 

 discovered by Professor Schrotter, of Vienna. Although prepared 

 from the yellow variety, its properties are essentially opposite. It 

 is practically odorless, non-poisonous, non-phosphorescent, insolu- 

 ble in Carbon Bisulphide, non-decomposable in the air- 



Both the yellow and the red Phosphorus are employed in the 

 manufacture of matches. Sweden is the world leader in this in- 

 stance, and exports yearly, I suppose, about one hundred billion of 

 these fire-tipped splinters. 



The ordinary match which we buy at the grocery stores is made 

 by dipping the wooden sticks — impregnated with paraffin or sulphur 

 to sustain combustion — in a warm adhesive agent containing an 



