Chemiluminescence 445 



commercial use 



At the present time, the derivatives of phosphorus, such as phos- 

 phide in the metal industry and phosphate in fertilizer, are more 

 valuable than the element phosphorus itself. The latter is some- 

 times used in rat poisons but no practical value has been found for 

 the luminescence. A phosphorus burn is so disagreeable and the 

 danger of fire such as hazard, that phosphorus in luminescence kits 

 as a novelty have never taken the public fancy. 



Nevertheless, ever since its discovery, phosphorus has lent itself 

 to trickery and horseplay of all kinds. Boyle (1680) spoke of " divers 

 ludicrous experiments," but decided to " purposly pass over . . . 

 these trifles," which no doubt consisted in making the faces of his 

 friends luminous. -' One instance is reported by J. L. Hanneman, 

 professor of medicine at the University of Kiel, in the Ephemerides -^ 

 for 1697. He rubbed phosphorus on the face of a colleague, making 

 it look like a multitude of glowworms. Unfortunately one bit, 

 rubbed rather more vigorously than the rest, caught fire and burned 

 his hair, " causing much grief." 



Later the use of phosphorus was cited by Stephen Fovargue in 

 A New Catalogue of Vulgar Errors (Cambridge, 1767) to indicate 

 how absurd is the belief in ghosts. He described in some detail the 

 way " these gentry [the chymists] could ' frighten a whole Village ' 

 by drawing with phosphorus a figure of the devil in some dark place 

 and you may guess the Surprise of the poor Country People, at seeing 

 the Old Gentleman on the Wall,— They all took to their heels." 

 Tales of such pranks could be repeated indefinitely, especially 

 instances in which the phosphorus started serious fires or caused 

 serious burns to would-be human ghosts. 



The middle nineteenth century required large amounts of yellow 

 phosphorus in the match industry. The yellow variety has now been 

 discontinued in favor of safer material, the allotrophic red modifica- 

 tion of phosphorus, which does not luminesce and does not easily 

 take fire. However, the old designation, " phosphorus fulgurans," 

 which served to contrast the inflammable and the Bononian or the 

 Baldewinian phosphori, suggests the use of such material in fire- 

 making. The earliest workers could not fail to notice that phos- 

 phorus readily ignited organic matter, and the first commercial fire- 

 setting device appears to have been the phosphoric taper or phos- 

 phoric bottle, used in France around 1781. This was a vessel con- 

 taining phosphorus, placed in warm water to melt the contents. If 



^Tred Slare {Philos. Collec. No. 3:48-50, 1680) reported such an occasion. 

 "^ Translated in the Coll. Academique Etranger 6: 336. 



