THE MANUFACTUEE OF PHOSPHOEUS. 171 



which is not poisonous, is easily prepared by heating to 250' Cv 

 the white variety in a closed vessel. It, however, has not the same 

 properties as the crystalline white phosphorus. A crystalline 

 variety of red phosphorus, recently discovered in Germany, is ob- 

 tained bv heating to boiling a 10 per cent solution of white phos- 

 phorus in phosphorous tribromide. This variety is not poisonous, 

 and advantageously replaces white phosphorus in the manufacture 

 of matches. The phosphorus industry is so new in France that 

 it is very difficult to get statistical figures, moreover information 

 is awantmg on the state of the industry in other countries. The 

 world's vearly production has been valued between 1000 and 3000 

 tons ; up to quite a recent period this manufacture was localized 

 abroad. The greater part of the world's phosphorus comes from 

 the factorv of Allbright and Wilson of Wednesfield, Oldbury, Eng- 

 land ; it was there that the Eeadman process was discovered. Its- 

 annual product may be 500 tons. There are other big factories at 

 Lvons, France, at Griesheim and at Frankfort, Germany. There 

 is^likewise a factory in Sweden, and others, small and numerous, in 

 Eussia, of which six, situated near Perm, produced about 110 tons 

 in 1890. In the United States, the first phosphorus factory was 

 constructed forty years ago at Philadelphia by Moro Phillips ; this 

 establishment is still at work. The factory of J. J. Allen el- Son 

 was founded at Philadelphia in 1891, and in competition with im- 

 ported phosphorus has furnished for a long tmre the phosphorus 

 required bv the Diamond Match Co., the largest match factory m 

 the United States ; but in 1897, the firm of Allbright and Wilson, 

 under the trade name Oldbury Electro-Chemical Co., erected a factory 

 of 300 H.P. working the Eeadman process at Niagara Falls, and it 

 is this factorv which up to now has supplied the Diamond :Match 

 Co., and furnished the greater part of the phosphorus produced m 

 the United States. Eecently that compauy has brought a new im- 

 provement to bear on the manufacture by installing Irvine's furnace, 

 by means of which 80 to 90 per cent of the phosphorus contained 

 in the raw material used can be extracted, which is a high strength 

 rock phosphate. This result is comparable to that which the English 

 factories obtain, extracting 86 per cent of phosphorus. There are 

 six furnaces of 50 H.P., each with a production of 170 lb. ot phos- 

 phorus per dav, say an average of a total of 1000 lb. of phosphorus 

 manufactured" daily. The production varies according to the de- 

 mand ; however, the factory produces at the present time half of 

 that which is produced in the United States. 



The General Chemical Co. has recently acquired Duncans 

 patent, and another company is installed at Long Island, where 

 they utilize for their furnaces the cuiTcnt which is distributed in 

 the town. 



The American Phosphorus Co. made its first installation at 



