Farrington — Free Phosphorus in Meteorite. 71 



Art. V. — An Occurrence of Free Phosphorus in the Saline 

 Township Meteorite ; by Oliver C. Farrington. 



On drilling into the Saline Township meteorite* recently 

 for the purpose of breaking off a piece, a white " smoke" was 

 observed by the writer to rise from the drill hole when a depth 

 of a little over two inches (5'5 cm ) had been reached. This 

 " smoke" had a pungent, garlic-like odor which was recognized 

 as similar to that of white phosphorus. It was more pungent 

 and resembled the odor of burning arsenic to some extent, 

 but on the whole suggested that of phosphorus more. It was 

 at once surmised that phosphorus might exist in the free state 

 in the meteorite, and the supposition was soon confirmed by 

 the following tests : 



1. On shielding the eyes from the light and looking into the 

 drill hole, a luminous spot could plainly be seen at the bottom. 

 This spot on further observation showed itself to be actually 

 made up of two. One of these was fixed and central and the 

 other moved around it, making a revolution every two or three 

 seconds. This motion corresponded to the swirling movement 

 with which the fumes rose from the hole and doubtless repre- 

 sented the manner of supply of air to fresh portions of the 

 phosphorus. 



2. On holding a strip of paper saturated with silver nitrate in 

 the fumes it turned black in a few moments. 



3. On treating some of the powder from the drilling with 

 nitric acid and adding the solution so obtained to ammonium 

 molybdate, the familiar yellow precipitate of ammonium- 

 phospho-molybdate was produced. 



The fumes continued to rise from the hole for about two hours 

 when they gradually diminished in volume and disappeared. 

 The odor could, however, be detected eighteen hours afterward. 

 These observations were confirmed by several of my associ- 

 ates. No effort has as yet been made to obtain a quantita- 

 tive determination of free phosphorus in the meteorite,, nor 

 is it likely that results of any particular value could thus be 

 gained. Two holes were drilled the same depth as the first in 

 other parts of the stone, but from neither was any repetition 

 of the above-named phenomena observed. The phosphorus is 

 (or was) probably, therefore, only locally distributed and in 

 small quantity. The stone where broken at the end of the hole 

 first drilled shows a spot about half an inch in diameter differ- 

 ing considerably in color from the rest of the stone, being 



* For a brief account of the fall and general characters of this meteorite 

 see Science, N. S. vol. xvi, p. 67, July 11, 1902. 



