408 ON THE UTILIZATION OF WASTE. 



was poisonous before, is no longer poisonous in this allotropic condition, 

 and it is still capable of being nsed for making lucifer-matches. In 

 passing into that allotropic state it has lost its power of dissolving in 

 bisulphide of carbon, and if any of the old phosphorus remains in it, 

 it may be dissolved out by this bisulphide of carbon. I have here 

 some of this ordinary substance which is dissolved in bisulphide of 

 carbon, and if I pour it now over this paper you will see the proper- 

 ties which it possesses, in a very short time. It will ignite of itself 

 as soon as it becomes sufficiently dry by the passing off of the bisulphide 

 of carbon. When this evaporation takes place the phosphorus is left in 

 such a fine state of division upon the paper that it bursts into flame. 

 The allotropic phosphorus is altered very considerably in its chemical 

 characters. 



Lucifer Matches. — I cannot tell you who was the first inventor of 

 a means of getting instantaneous light. Many admirers of Prometheus 

 declare that it was Prometheus, but he does not do so himself. He 

 says this : — 



"I am he who sought the source of fire, 

 Enclosing it hid in my narthex staff; 

 And it hath shown itself a friend to man, 

 And teacher of all arts." 



You recollect the circumstances under which Prometheus got the fire. 

 Jupiter was so angry with Prometheus for having stuffed a bull's skin 

 with bones, and passed it off as a real carcase for a votive offering, that 

 he took away fire from the earth to punish Prometheus. We might 

 suppose that the father of the gods removed the fire lest the ingenious 

 Prometheus should have made phosphorus from the bones, and thus 

 become independent of the gods. Whether man would thus have been 

 independent of the gods for fire I do not know, but fire was taken from 

 the earth. What Prometheus actually did was only to steal fire from 

 the chariot of the sun, and keep it alive, until he reached the earth and 

 gave it to man, by blowing with the pith of the giant Fennel, which 

 he used as a staff. We are told by Pliny and Virgil that" the tinder- 

 box, similar to those used by us, was well known in their time. They 

 describe the properties of the flint and steel, and Virgil says that dry 

 leaves may be ignited by means of the flint and steel with the 

 rapidity of speech. The savages of various countries found for them- 

 selves a means of getting a light which was far from instanta- 

 neous. I think it would require much more dexterity than we can 

 employ, to demonstrate how a light may be got by rubbing together 

 two pieces of wood ; but we can get sufficient heat in that way to ignite 

 some substances which are more combustible than the wood itself. By 

 rubbing these two pieces of wood together, in a little time they become 

 very hot. Now they are smoking violently. Observe that there is now heat 

 enough to ignite a piece of phosphorus readily. In this case the friction 



