Customer Reviews

The 13th Element: The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire, and Phosphorus

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This book was first published last year in England under the title 'The Shocking History of Phosphorus'. However, its US publishers decided to call it 'The 13th element' because it was the 13th element to be discovered, and I mention this in the book. I am aware that the atomic number of phosphorus is 15 - indeed I wrote a text book devoted entirely to phosphorus chemistry more than 20 years ago - and I am sorry if this has caused some readers to think that I have got my chemistry wrong.

This was first published in Great Britain with the title The Shocking History of Phosphorus. Even with such a provocative title one might wonder how a book devoted to a single chemical element could find commercial success. The fact that the book has now been published in the United States and Canada suggests that author John Emsley knows what he is doing. He reduces the dry chemistry to a minimum and accentuates the sordid details, making this an interesting read.

Emsley begins with alchemy in the seventeenth century and how phosphorus was first manufactured from copious pots of urine, and how the small amounts obtained were used in demonstrations before royalty. By the by we gain some historical insight into the lives of the European alchemists and their methods. Emsley then delves into the medical use of phosphorus, proscribed for ailments as diverse as TB and melancholia, for which it worthless. Indeed it was worthless for all prescriptions. (Maybe this is how homoepathy began: a vanishingly dilute prescription of phosphorus would be an improvement on the standard dosage!) Phosphorus was even seen as an aphrodisiac.

The production of phosphorus really took off in the early nineteenth century with invention of the phosphorus match, aptly named "the lucifer." I thought this was the most interesting part of the book, bringing to mind a world before we had matches and fires had to kept going or started with flint and tender, or perhaps borrowed from your neighbor. Emsley writes that by the end of the nineteenth century "three trillion phosphorus matches were being struck every year" (p. 65). He emphasizes the word "trillion." Next Emsley tells the sad, ugly tale of how the matches were manufactured by children and women sixty hours a week in sweat shop conditions at subsistence wages (if that), and how many of the workers contacted phossy jaw, a disease caused by phosphorus that rots the teeth and jaw and can lead to deformity or death. Then comes the story of Annie Besant and the Salvation Army whose efforts greatly improved the conditions of the workers.

Ah, but the worst is to come. As World War I approached we clever people discovered that poisoned gas and incendiary bombs could be made from phosphorus, and so a new horror was ushered in. Finally though, in the latter chapters we see how phosphorus is used in fertilizers and dishwashing detergents. Emsley discusses some of the problems associated with their use. He also goes into how and why our bodies need phosphorus and its role in nutrition. The "phosporus cycle" is discussed and the rather bizarre phenomenon of "spontaneous human combustion" is looked into.

Bottom line: this is eye-opening read about an element that has had a major impact on human history for both good and evil, a history that is continuing. (Incidentally, phosphorus was the thirteenth element discovered, element fifteen of the periodic table, thus the somewhat misleading title.)

There are countless processes and materials that cycle through to keep life cycles on Earth going. Is there one material that is the bottleneck, the thing that limits populations and growth? Surprisingly, there is a "supreme ruler" that if diminished slows all life down, no matter what the availability of other chemicals is. That bottleneck chemical is phosphorus. According to _The Thirteenth Element: The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire, and Phosphorus_ (John Wiley & Sons) by John Emsley, phosphorus is essential for, among other things, being the backbone of DNA and forming the basic chemistry for biological storage and use of energy. It does not get replenished by circulation as the other big four do; carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen all can circulate in the atmosphere or by water. It cannot be "fixed" from the atmosphere into the soil by microbes, as nitrogen can. Phosphorus does have its cycles, but they are slow, like the one that includes it being washed from the soil into the sea, forming part of the sea bed, and then in millions of years being lifted up as rock to form new land. The main land-based cycle is simply from soil to plants to animals and via urine, feces, or decomposition, back to soil again. Cultivation of land means that phosphorus in plants is exported away, and does not get re-deposited into the soil. Crops grown on the same land deplete it of other vital chemicals, but the one that is lost forever without deliberate replacement is phosphorus; this was not known until the nineteenth century. It was found that using bone meal as a fertilizer was effective, but it was originally assumed that the calcium in its calcium phosphate was the cause.

Emsley has good fun describing the ins and outs of phosphorus, but his book is particularly wide-ranging. He explains why the phosphorus in detergents is not really as bad as we once thought. He explains that it has been used as a medicine for centuries, even though it never cured anyone of anything. He tells stories of phosphorus as a poison, used as such successfully by many dissatisfied husbands and wives, some of whom were particularly skillful at the use of the element in this way, having practiced on a succession of spouses. Much of the book is devoted to the nasty properties of phosphorus, such as the horrid disease of "phossy jaw" which afflicted those in the matchmaking trade, or the distressing effects of nerve gas or phosphorous bombs.

So, like so many things, phosphorus is neither good nor bad, but is essential and can be used in many admirable or detestable ways. Emsley takes us through many of them in a wide-ranging book that not only covers the science of his element, but also the social forces in such activities as the advertising of matches and the social reforms which improved the safety of the matchmakers. He has many previous credits as a science writer, and clearly and vividly describes the history and both the dramatic and quotidian effects of an essential, ubiquitous, and dangerous element.

Regardless of genre, this book has it all. I really enjoy good science writing - the works of Stephen Jay Gould come first to mind - but lament that these books are all too rare. The 13th Element was one of those seredipitous happenstances wherin one stubles upon a true gem where one had not expected to find even a rhinestone. Subtitled "The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire and Phosphorus", this book had everything one might want from either a thriller, a good spy tale, horror fiction or true crime. Whether it is the twisted story of how alchemists boiled down gallons of urine in order to obtain tiny amounts of a strange, glowing element, the gruesome tale of matchmakers and "fossey-jaw" (an unpleasant rotting and eventual disintegration of the facial bones), typically British tales of amateur poisoners, or a brief history of poison gas in warfare, the true stories behind the 13th element, phosphorus, are all riveting. Sure, some of this material was a tad more scientifically in depth than I really cared about, but most of that is thoughtfully saved for the last chapter or two. From page one on I was delighted with how this book propelled forward with the inertia of that giant stone chasing Indiana Jones. Look, don't pass this one by. I'm immediately ordering a copy of Emsley's other book, Molecules at an Exhibition. This is a man who clearly knows how to popularize science by recognising a great story when he sees one and writing it without dumbing-down or condescending to his readers. This is the best kind of science writing: thrilling.

Now, how could an entire book (over 350 pages no less) about phosphorus be interesting? It glows in the dark, it oxidizes on contact with air, it's an essential element, compounds of phosphorus are used in fertilizers and there was something about pollution several years ago. That about covers it, right? Well, actually not quite. Even though I am a chemist by profession, I was surprised to find out about (among other things) the huge fortunes built on the match business and the connection of these enterprises to the first appearance of organized labour movements. Also, how many are aware that the whole condemnation of phosphate detergents may have been completely misguided?

Emsley has created a thoroughly engrossing tale of the discovery and use of one of the more common elements on our planet as well as being able to include a sizable amount of solid scientific information in a thoroughly engrossing form. Other reviewers have outlined in some detail the contents of this book but let me emphasize that the "science" never gets in the way of the narrative. Anyone who has even a passing interest in natural science should find this book an excellent read. I purchased this book in hardback form some time ago but have given a couple of the paperback copies away to friends and have not gotten a negative response yet.

In this well-researched and very readable book, Mr.Emsley describes the initial discovery of elemental phosphorus by alchemists with an initial production of ounces per year from urine! at an exorbitant cost, to WWII production of thousands of tons per month.
Of course, it was immediately put to use as a medicine - something that powerful MUST be good for what ails you... fortunately only the rich could afford to be poisoned that way!
The perils of working with raw phosphorus (eg, while making lucifers) gradually became obvious and are graphically described, as well as some horrific accidents while transporting the stuff.

Products such as pesticides, incendiaries, smoke screens and nerve gas show its aggressive uses, while other chapters show the benefits of fertilizers, preservatives and detergents.

On a side-track, phosphorus's involvement in spontaneous human combustion is investigated - also explaining will o'wisps and graveyard apparitions.

Immensely readable and crammed full of facts and figures, I recommend this as a welcome addition to any amateur science historian's library. *****

I'm the US editor for this book, and I wanted to answer the questions below. It was brought to our attention late in the game (by Oliver Sacks, no less) that zinc (I believe) was known in Asia before phosphorus was known in Europe, making the latter the 14th element discovered on a world-scale. However, because the book has a European focus, and there phosphorus was #13, we decided to keep the title as it was.

Naturally, I'm rating this book with 5 stars not just because I want to sell lots of copies but because we wouldn't have acquired it otherwise. It is great fun, especially the material on spontaneous human combustion.

I am an avid science/math reader and when I discovered that my friend had this book, I borrowed it from him.

The book discusses a whole range of things about phosphorus including its discovery, how it was first manufactured from urine and feces, how its chemical yield was later significantly improved by manufacturing it from bone instead, its influence in bombings during WWII, its use in pesticides/herbicides, anecdotes of people using it to poison others, its possible influence in spontaneous combustion, etc.

What most disappointed me about the book I think is that it just seemed like a random catalog of anecdote after anecdote. The content did not flow in a way that I cared for. That's not to say there isn't some interesting information covered in it, but I've read better books. This one's maybe worth checking out at the library and reading once if you're into science/science history, but that's about it.

Fascinating reading about the mysteries of phosphorus. This covers everthing you wanted to know about phosphorus and more! By the time you finish this book you'll know how phosphorus was discovered, how it contributes to eutrophication (and what exactly eutrophication is, anyway), the symptoms of "phossy jaw", how a match is made, and many other fascinating facts about phosphorus. The author has resisted making this a "fact a page" list, and has put together the history of phosphorus in an ejoyable, coherent fashion. If you love books about chemistry, you'll have trouble putting this one down.

I was required to read this book for a high school chemistry course this past year. While I am not typically fond of scientific reading, especially regarding elements and their uses, I found this book to be surprisingly entertaining and informational. Emsley combines both scientific facts and human interest stories to make the novel a worthwhile read for anyone with a slight background in chemistry. I enjoyed the book much more than I had originally thought I would, and was able to read it cover to cover in about two weeks. There were a few chapters that I found rather dull towards the beginning, more specifically the medical chapter and the initial chapters detailing the discovery of phosphorous. I am sure someone of a more scientific mind would find these chapters enjoyable, but I was personally bored by them. I also found several grammatical and spelling errors throughout the pages that have nothing to do with differences between the American and English dialects. Overall, I found the book interesting enough for a piece of assigned reading. I would recommend The 13th Element mainly to science students looking for an engrossing read or high school teachers looking for a fairly easy book to assign students.