418 PHOSPHORUS. 



SEC. IV. PHOSPHORUS. 



1. HISTORY AND NAME. 



(a.) Brandt, an alchemist of Hamburgh, has the credit of discov- 

 ering Phosphorus, A. D. 1669, while endeavoring to transmute 

 metals ;* Brandt sold the secret to his friend, Kunckel, but deceiv- 

 ed him with a false process. Kunckel, having however learned 

 that it was obtained from urine, avenged himself by making the dis- 

 covery anew. 



Mr. Boyle also discovered it in England, and Godfrey Hankwitz, 

 a man instructed by him, vended it at a high price, in a shop still 

 shown in London, near Covent Garden Theatre. 



(b.) In 1737, a committee of the French Academy of Sciences was 

 instructed in the process by a stranger ; it was then, as at first, ob- 

 tained by evaporating bogheads of putrid urine to dryness, and after- 

 wards distilling the residuum with a strong heat, in a stone ware retort. 



(c.) JVLargrajf, of Berlin, by adding muriate of lead to tlie urine, 

 precipitated phosphoric acid, in union with oxide of lead, and this 

 was decomposed by distillation with charcoal. 



(d.) In 1769, Ghan, of Sweden, a pupil of Scheele, having dis- 

 covered that phosphate of lime is the basis of bones, invented the pro- 

 cess now generally followed. 



The name signifies light bearer, $5 <Npw. 



2. PREPARATION. 



(a.) Obtained from bones, by a process to be described under 

 phosphate of lime. At the same time may be mentioned, the pro- 

 cesses by which it is extracted from urine, and from the phosphates of 

 soda and ammonia, and the method of purification ; but, for the pres- 

 ent, we will consider it as obtained and pure. 



3. PROPERTIES. 



(a.) Color, after distillation in hydrogen, nearly white, and 

 semi-transparent, usually however, brownish or flesh red ; looks like 

 wax is insipid becomes black when suddenly cooled, after being 

 heated to 140 or 160 ; but cooled slowly, remains transparent 

 and colorless, or with the translucence of horn. Thenard says that 

 it must have undergone repeated distillations, in order to exhibit 

 these appearances. 



(b.) Solid, brittle in cold weaihet* ; fracture sometimes radiated ; 

 sp. gr. 1.714, or 1.77 ; in mild weather easily cut; in cold weather 

 brittle.f 



* He imagined that the extract of urine, would enable him to transmute the baser 

 metals into gold and silver, and while heating this substance, the phosphorus was 

 evolved. t If pure, it is very flexible ; l-600th of sulphur renders it brittle. 



