class="smcap">Electric furnace for producing elemental phosphorus, invented by Thomas Parker of Newbridge, England, and assigned to The Electric Construction Corporation of the same place. The drawing is part of United States patent 482,586 (September 13, 1892). The furnace was patented in England on October 29, 1889 (no. 17,060); in France on June 23, 1890 (no. 206,566); in Germany on June 17, 1890 (no. 55,700); and in Italy on October 23, 1890 (no. 431). The following explanation is cited from the U.S. patent:

Figure 1 [shown here] is a vertical section of the furnace, and Fig. 2 is a diagram to illustrate the means for regulating the electro-motive force or quantity of current across the furnace.

F is the furnace containing the charge to be treated. It has an inlet-hopper at a, with slides AA, by which the charge can be admitted without opening communication between the interior of the furnace and the outer air.

B is a screw conveyer by which the charge is pushed forward into the furnace.

c´c´ are the electrodes, consisting of blocks or cylinders or the like of carbon fixed in metal socket-pieces c c, to which the electric-circuit wires d from the dynamo D are affixed. The current, as aforesaid, may be either continuous or alternating. c²c² are rods of metal or carbon, which are used to establish the electric circuit through the furnace, the said rods being inserted into holes in conductors c³ (in contact with the socket-pieces c) and in the furnace, as shown.

g is the outlet for the gas or vapor, h the slag-tap hole, and x the opening for manipulating the charge, the said openings being closed by clay or otherwise when the furnace is at work.

I use coke or other form of carbon in the charge between the electrodes c´, the said coke being in contact with the said electrodes, so that complete incandescence is insured.

A means for varying the electro-motive force or quantity of current across the furnace with the varying resistance of the charge is illustrated by the diagram, Fig. 2. c´ c² indicate the electrodes in the furnace, as in Fig. 1, and D is the dynamo and T its terminals. E represents the exciting-circuit. R R are resistances, and R S is the resistance-switch, which is operated to put in more or less resistance at R as the resistance of the charge in the furnace lessens or increases. This switch may be automatically operated, and a suitable arrangement for the purpose is a current-regulator such as is described in the specification of English Letters Patent No. 14,504, of September 14, 1889, granted to William Henry Douglas and Thomas Hugh Parker.

Figure 11.—Dipping of matchsticks in France, about 1870. The frame which holds the matches so that one end protrudes at the bottom, is lowered over a pan containing molten sulfur. The sulfur-covered matches are then dropped into a phosphorous paste. See figure 12. (From Figuier, Merveilles de l’industrie, volume 3, 1874, page 575.)

Figure 12.—Pan for dipping matchsticks into phosphorus paste, about 1870. The letters on the picture are: A, matches; B, water bath; C, frame; D, plate; E, phosphorus paste; F, oven. The phosphorus paste of Böttger, 1842, contained 10 phosphorus, 25 antimony sulfide, 12.5 manganese dioxide, 15 gelatin. According to Figuier (page 579), R. Wagner substituted lead dioxide for the manganese dioxide. (From Figuier, volume 3, 1874, page 576.)

In the system of chemistry, as it developed in the first half of the 19th century, the new development can be characterized as the turn from inorganic to organic phosphates, from the substance of minerals and strong chemical interactions to the components in which phosphate groups remained combined with carbon-containing substances.

Phosphatides and Phosphagens

The important phosphorus compounds in organisms are much more complex than the simple salts, to which Nietzsche attributed such influence on man’s character. Long before he wrote, it was known that phosphoric acid combines not only with inorganic bases to form salts, but with alcohols to form esters. In the middle of the 19th century, Théophile Juste Pelouze (1807-1867) extended this knowledge to an ester of glycerol. This proved to be significant in several respects. Glycerol had been shown by Michel Chevreul (1786-1889) as the substance in fats that is released in the process of soap boiling, when the fatty acids are converted into their salts. That it has the nature of an alcohol had been demonstrated by Marcellin Berthelot. Instead of one “alcoholic” hydroxyl group, OH, like ethanol (the alcohol of fermentation), or two hydroxyl groups (like ethylene glycol), glycerol contains three such groups. It was the only “natural” alcohol known at that time. That this alcohol would combine with phosphoric acid could be predicted, but that the ester, as obtained by Pelouze, still contained free acidic functions and formed a water-soluble barium salt was a new experience.