PHOSPHORUS  AND  MATCH  MANUFACTURES.  145 
ON  THE  ORIGIN  AND  PROGRESS  OF  THE  PHOSPHORUS  AND 
xMATCH  MANUFACTURES. 
By  G.  Gore. 
(Continued  from  page  59.) 
This  wet  and  finely-divided  substance  having  been  dried,  sift- 
ed, and  packed  in  air-tight  tins  is  ready  for  sale. 
It  is  well  known  in  modern  chemistry  that  a  substance  may 
exist  in  two  or  more  physical  states,  possessing  very  different 
physical  and  chemical  properties,  and  that  there  may  be  as  great 
a  difference  in  the  properties  of  the  same  substance  in  its  differ- 
ent states  of  aggregation  as  there  is  between  two  chemically 
different  substances.  For  instance,  there  is  as  great  an  amount 
of  physical  difference  between  carbon  as  it  exists  in  the  diamond 
and  as  it  exists  in  pure  lamp-black,  as  between  copper  and  silver 
or  silver  and  gold.  The  two  kinds  of  phosphorus  we  have  de- 
scribed are,  then,  precisely  the  same  chemical  substance,  but  in 
different  states  of  aggregation.  The  following  is  a  comparison 
of  their  properties.  We  will,  for  convenience,  term  them  white 
and  red  phosphorus  : — 
White.  Red. 
Poisonous.  Innocuous. 
Evolves  a  strong  odor.  Nearly  odorless. 
Phosphorescent — -luminous  in  Not  phosphorescent — perfectly 
the  dark.  illuminous. 
Melts  at  108°  F.  Melts  at  above  500°  F. 
Very  transparent.  Opaque. 
Almost  colorless.  Varies  in  color  from  nearly 
black  (with  metallic  lustre)  to 
iron-gray,  brick  red,  crimson, 
and  scarlet. 
Freely  soluble  in  various         Nearly  insoluble  in  all  liquids, 
liquids. 
Distinctly  crystalline.  Destitute  of  all  crystalline 
structure  (amorphous). 
Soft,  may  be  indented  by  the   Hard  as  a  common  red  brick, 
nail. 
Flexible  as  copper  or  lead.       Brittle  as  glass. 
The  great  and  most  conspicuous  fact  is  that  red  phosphorus 
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