Conversations on Chemistry, V. 1-2 / In Which the Elements of that Science Are Familiarly Explained and Illustrated by Experiments

by Mrs. Marcet

EMILY.

I have a box of these curious matches; but I have observed, that in very cold weather, they will not take fire without being previously rubbed.

MRS. B.

By rubbing them you raise their temperature; for, you know, friction is one of the means of extricating heat.

EMILY.

Will phosphorus combine with hydrogen gas, as sulphur does?

MRS. B.

Yes; and the compound gas which results from this combination has a smell still more fetid than the sulphuretted hydrogen; it resembles that of garlic.

The phosphoretted hydrogen gas has this remarkable peculiarity, that it takes fire spontaneously in the atmosphere, at any temperature. It is thus, probably, that are produced those transient flames, or flashes of light, called by the vulgar Will-of-the Whisp, or more properly Ignes-fatui, which are often seen in church-yards, and places where the putrefactions of animal matter exhale phosphorus and hydrogen gas.

CAROLINE.