The Shocking History of Phosphorus is the biography of a terrifying chemical element that was discovered long before humans were capable of controlling its awesome power. Born of the age of alchemy it brought wealth to a few and misery to many, in the form of medicines, matches, poisons, and warfare agents. And yet phosphorus is still an essential component of so much that we need and use.

• Published: 2000
• Publisher: Macmillan
• ISBN: 0333766385

Did you know?

The title of this book in the US edition was The 13th Element: a Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire and Phosphorus. Book titles are generally devised by marketing people, as was this one, and they chose it because in the book I say that phosphorus was the 13th element to be discovered. (I now think this accolade should go to zinc which was known in India long before it was known in the West.) The new title rather embarrassed me because phosphorus is the 15th element in terms of atomic number, a fact that one reviewer was quick to pick up on, the implication being that I didn't known my basic chemistry.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
1. Out of alchemy
2. The alchemist and his apprentice
3. The toxic tonic
4. Strike a light
5. Strike!
6. The cost of a box of matches
7. Gomorrah
8. The ultimate evil and a power for good
9. Murder
10. Fortunes from phosphorus
11. Unlucky days
12. The supreme ruler
13. Oh, shit!
14. Spontaneous human combustion and other horrors
• Epilogue - The Devil's element?
• Appendix 1 - The right chemistry
• Appendix 2 - Sources
• Index