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

by John Emsley (Author) "While thus employed, Gerard was busy about the seated corpse and to his amazement, Denys saw a luminous glow spreading rapidly over the white face..." (more)
Key Phrases: Salvation Army, Second World War, Royal Society (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Tells the surprising history of phosphorus, an element which was discovered by alchemists, prescribed by apothecaries, exploited by industrialists and abused by 20th-century combatants. Over the years, phosphorus has been called a poison, a miracle elixir, and even the answer to the mystery of spontaneous human combustion! Award-winning author John Emsley traces the shocking history of the thirteenth element.

From the Back Cover
This is popular science at its best, a great subject, unfolded with the skill of the storyteller; at once a mine of information and a thoroughly good read."
–The Sunday Times (London)

"This well-written book is an examination of the very character of all chemicals."
–The Sunday Telegraph (London)

Discovered by alchemists, prescribed by apothecaries, exploited by nineteenth-century industrialists, and abused by twentieth-century combatants, phosphorus is one of nature’s deadliest–and most fascinating–creations. Now award-winning author John Emsley combines his gift for storytelling with his scientific expertise to present an enthralling account of this eerily luminescent element. From murders-by-phosphorus where the bodies glowed green, to the match factory strike that helped end child labor in England, to the irony of the World War II firebombing of Hamburg, to even deadlier compounds derived from phosphorus today, The 13th Element weaves together a rich tableau of brilliant and oddball characters, social upheavals, and curious, bizarre, and horrific events that comprise the surprising 300-year history of nature’s most nefarious element. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 327 pages
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (August 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471394556
• ISBN-13: 978-0471394556
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #995,857 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Explaining the title of the book, July 13, 2001

By	John Emsley (London, England) - See all my reviews

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.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A melancholy history of a fascinating element, March 6, 2001

By	Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

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.)

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elementally Fascinating, February 16, 2001

By	R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.