The discovery of Phosphorus. u 



Moses that in the beginning moved upon the water, 

 yea, his splendid shining face : the fiery pillar in the 

 desert, that secret fire of the altar wherewith Moses 

 burned the golden calf before he strewed it upon the 

 fire and made it potable." 



The experiment of Brandt was repeated by Kun- 

 ckel before the courts of Saxony and Brandenburg, 

 although it was not a very delicate or agreeable 

 exhibition, " because the anctuous and daubing 

 oyliness was not yet accurately separated from it, 

 and without doubt it was very stinking." Brandt's 

 process was further developed by Boyle, and pub- 

 lished in the Philosophical Transactions of the 

 Royal Society, in the year 1692-3 ; 'and phosphorus 

 was afterwards obtained in larger quantity and in a 

 purer state by Hanckwitz, a chemist in Southampton 

 Street, Strand, and sold by him at three pounds 

 sterling per ounce. Its price at present is less than 

 three shillings per pound. 



Margraaf, Fourcroy, Vauquelin, and Dr. Slare 

 also extended our knowwledge of the substance ; 

 Gahn, in 1769, made the important discovery of 

 phosphorus in bones, and Scheele immediately 

 devised the process now in use by our manufacturers 

 for extracting it from that substance. The com- 

 mencement of the use of phosphorus for the purpose 

 of getting a light occurred about the year 1803, but 

 it was not until the year 1833 that the invention of 

 phosphorus matches became commercially successful. 

 The use of such matches is now universal, and it has 



