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White phosphorus, yellow phosphorus, or simply tetraphosphorus (P 4) is an allotrope of phosphorus. It is a translucent waxy solid that quickly yellows in light (due to its photochemical conversion into red phosphorus ), [ 2 ] and impure white phosphorus is for this reason called yellow phosphorus.
Phosphorus must have been awe-inspiring to an alchemist: it was a product of man, and seeming to glow with a "life force" that did not diminish over time (and did not need re-exposure to light like the previously discovered Bologna Stone). Brand kept his discovery secret, as alchemists of the time did, and worked with the phosphorus trying ...
Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who invented the modern chemical notation, discovered that the dangerous white phosphorus in matches could be replaced with the more benign red phosphorus, but was not able to produce a match reliable enough for everyday use. Pasch, a student of Berzelius, managed to do so by moving the phosphorus from the head of the ...
Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Earth. It has an occurrence in the Earth's crust of about 0.1%, generally occurring as phosphate in minerals.
People exposed to white phosphorus can suffer severe and sometimes deadly bone-deep burns. It can cause organs to shut down, and burns on just 10% of the body can be fatal, HRW said.
Production of the red form of phosphorus, "amorphous phosphorus" was commenced by Arthur Albright in 1851, by heating white phosphorus in a sealed crucible under a vacuum. It had been discovered by Professor Schrötter, in Vienna and patented by him. However, it was explosive to make and Albright discovered a safe means of production.
The Post reported on Monday that one of their reporters in Lebanon found remnants of the shells ... like white phosphorus to another military, it is with the full expectation that it’ll be used ...
Now, an investigation by The Washington Post has found that the white phosphorus shells used in that attack were made in the United States. While white phosphorus can have military uses ...