170 NOTE ON PHOSPHORUS IN IRON WIRE. 



however vague, of a future life — or acknowledging by adoration, or in 

 some other intelligible mode, the existence of a supreme and spiritual 

 Being. 



NOTE ON THE PRESENCE OF PHOSPHORUS IN 

 IRON WIRE. 



BY E. J. CHAPMAN, Ph.D. 



PSOPBSSOE OB MIITEEALOGT AND GEOLOGY IN UNIVEESITT COLLEGE, TOEONTO. 



(Read lefore the Canadian Institute, March 12, 1864.^ 



Upwaeds of twenty years ago, thin iron wire was stated by 

 Griffin, in his " Chemical Recreations," (Ed. 8, p. 154), to 

 exhibit, in burning, a green light. This statement is repeated by 

 Prof. Galloway in the various editions of his useful little work on 

 chemical analysis : iron wire being placed in one of the tables, given 

 in that manual, amongst the substances which impart a green colo- 

 ration to the blowpipe-flame. In this connexion, it is curious that 

 neither Berzelius, Plattner {Lothrohrprobirkunst : 1834, 46, 53), 

 Dr. Harald Lenz {Die Lothrohrschule : 1848), Scheerer (Ldthrohr- 

 buche, 1849, 57), Bruno Kerl (Leitfaden hei qual. und quan. Lothrohr- 

 XJntersuchungen, 1859, 62), nor any other of the numerous workers 

 with the blowpipe on the continent of Europe, have ever alluded to 

 this reaction. Lenz gives a minute account of the action of the 

 blowpipe-flame on iron wire, and points out that the fusion of the 

 wire is always accompanied by oxidation ; but he makes no allusion 

 to any coloration of the flame. 



Struck by this apparent omission, I have lately examined a 

 great number of iron wires by the blowpipe. I find that all the 

 light- coloured and comparatively hard wires exhibit the reaction very 

 distinctly — a bright green flame streaming from the point of the^ 

 wire diu-ing the oxidation and fusion of the latter, whilst a rapid 

 scintillation, or emission of sparks, accompanies the phenomenon. 



