PHOSPHORUS  AND  MATCH  MANUFACTURES.  51 
fiery  ghost  of  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." 
About  the  year  1670  the  Honorable  Robert  Boyle,  an  Irish- 
man and  a  philosopher  of  this  country,  brought  over  from 
Germany  a  youth  named  Ambrose  Godfrey  Hanckwitz  to  assist 
him  in  his  chemical  experiments,  and  having  obtained  informa- 
tion from  Saxony  of  the  method  of  extracting  phosphorus,  di- 
rected his  assistant,  Mr.  Bilger,  to  instruct  Hanckwitz  to  pre- 
pare some  of  it.  Hanckwitz  it  appears  succeeeded  in  prepar- 
ing an  ounce  of  the  substance  and  presented  it  to  his  master 
even  before  he  received  the  instructions  from  Mr.  Bilger.  He 
was  now  sent  by  Boyle  on  a  tour  through  "  Holland,  Italy, 
Naples,  and  Germany,"  to  gain  further  information  respect- 
ing "the  marvellous  lumen,"  but  with  little  success,  for  he 
returned  without  meeting  with  ie even  one  that  could  make  even 
that  poor  daubing  stuff  as  Kunckell's  out  of  the  usual  microcos- 
mical  matters." 
In  No.  135  of  the  Philosophical  Transactions  of  the  Royal 
Society,  dated  March  26,  1677,  page  87,  is  a  paper  by  Boyle, 
entitled,  <«  An  Account  of  Four  Sorts  of  Factitious  Shining 
Substances,  communicated  to  the  publisher  from  very  good 
hands,  both  in  printed  papers  and  in  letters  not  printed."  After 
speaking  of  three  sorts,  it  says: — "The  other  is  Phosphorus  Ful- 
gurans,  which  is  a  matter  made  both  in  a  liquid,  and  dry  form, 
and  not  only  shineth  in  the  dark  and  communicates  a  sudden 
light  to  such  bodies  as  'tis  rubbed  upon,  but  being  included  in 
a  glass  vessel,  well  closed,  doth  now  and  then  fulgurate,  and 
sometimes  also  raise  itself,  as  'twere,  into  waves  of  light.  Differing 
from  the  Baulduinian  stone  which  is  to  be  exposed  to  some  shin- 
ing body,  as  the  day,  the  sun,  the  fire,  or  some  lighted  candle, 
to  receive  light  from  these,  whereas  this  fulgurating  substance 
carries  its  light  always  with  it,  and  when  put  in  a  dark  place 
presently  shows  the  same.  Of  which  we  have  this  further  assur- 
ance given  us,  that  a  little  portion  of  it  having  been  kept  two 
whole  years  hath  not  yet  lost  its  power  of  shining.  So  that  'tis 
believed  that  if  a  considerable  big  piece  was  prepared  of  it,  it 
would  serve  for  a  perpetual,  or,  at  least,  a  very  long  lasting 
light." 
