en. Dipping oi matchsticks in France, about 



1870. The frame which hold-, the matches so ili.it one end 

 protrudes .it the bottom, is lowered over .1 pan containing 

 molten sulliu . I he sulfur-covered matches are then 



dropped into a phosphorous paste. See figure 12. (1 rom 

 I hi UK. Merveillei dt C Industrie, volume 3, 1874, page 

 575-) 



Fig. 156. — Coup- ihi plateiu a tremper les an 

 chimiques dans la pate de pliosphore a chaud et uu 

 bain-marie. 



Figure 12. 1'an for dippinc matchsticks into phos- 

 phorus paste, about 1870. The letters on the picture 

 are: V matches; B, watei bath: C, frame; 1). plate; I.. 

 phosphorus paste; I. oven, ["he phosphorus paste ol 

 Bottger, 1842, contained 10 phosphorus, -•", antimon) 

 sulfide, 1 - .5 manganese dioxide. 1-, gelatin. Vccording 

 to Figuier (page 579), R. Wagner substituted lead dioxide 

 for the manganese dioxide. (From 1 ioi n R, volume 3, 

 1874, page 576.) 



concerning tin- arrangements of atoms in the mole- 

 cules, and of new apparatus to measure their rates of 

 change. 



In the system of chemistry, as it developed in tin- 

 first half of the 19th century, the new development can 

 lie characterized as the turn from inorganic to organic 

 phosphates, from the substance of minerals and strong 

 chemical interactions to the components in which 

 phosphate groups remained combined with carbon- 

 ci int. lining substances. 



Phosphatides and Phosphagcns 



The important phosphorus compounds in organisms 

 are much more complex than the simple salts, to 

 which Nietzsche attributed such influence on man's 

 character. Long before he wrote, it was known that 

 phosphoric acid combines not only with inorganic 



bases to form salts, but with alcohols to form esteis. 

 In the middle of the 19th Century, Theophile Juste 

 Pelou/e (1807 l<">t>7) extended this knowledge to an 

 ester ol glycerol. This proved to !»■ significant in 

 several respects. Glycerol had been shown by Michel 

 Chevreul (1786 1889) as the substance in fats that is 

 released in the process of soap boiling, when the fatty 

 acids are converted into their salts. That it has the 

 nature of an alcohol had been demonstrated In 

 Murccllin Berthelot. Instead of one "alcoholic" h\- 

 droxyl group, OH, like ethanol (the alcohol of fer- 

 mentation), or two hydroxyl groups dike ethylene 

 glycol), glycerol contains three such groups. It was 

 the onh "■natural" alcohol known at that time. That 

 this alcohol would combine with phosphoric acid 

 could be predicted, but that the ester, as obtained 

 In Pelouze, still contained free acidic function 

 formed a water-soluble barium salt was a new experi- 

 ence. 



PAPER at): HISTORY or PHOSPHORUS 



1S«I 



