Important: Safety Warning
This page describes trade processes that use dangerously toxic materials such as cyanide solutions, mercury amalgams, or strong acids. These processes require training, equipment, and precautions far beyond what the text describes.
In addition, this page describes manufacturing phosphorus using concentrated sulphuric acid in lead vessels. Phosphorus ignites spontaneously in air, burns that are extremely difficult to extinguish, and is acutely poisonous; the acid causes severe burns.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
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To Obtain Phosphorus
Ground bone-ash, 12 parts; water, 24 parts; mix to a pap in a large tub, and add in a slender stream (still stirring) oil of vitriol, 8 parts; work well together, adding more water if required; in 24 hours thin with water, agitate well, and, if convenient, heat the mixture in a leaden pan, and as soon as the paste has lost its granular character, transfer it into a series of tall casks; largely dilute with water, and, after settling, 4328. To Dissolve Iodine in Cod decant the clear portion; wash the residue Liver Oil. To effect this it is best to triturate the iodine with half its weight of iodide of potassium, and to add gradually the oil so as to form a uniform mixture. After standing for a few hours all the iodide will be found at the bottom of the flask, leaving the iodine in perfect solution, the oil having but little of its taste. (Eymael.)