Word: phosphorus
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...highest ever reached by experiment. At this pressure mercury and hydrogen pass through thick nickel steel as though it were a sieve; and there are six different kinds of ice instead of the one that used to be found in cocktails. At these pressures it was found that white phosphorus when heated to 390 degrees suddenly changed from a colorless, waxy, translucent material to a much denser, jet-black, flaky substance like the graphite or black "lead" used in lead pencils. This is an absolutely new form of the element, with properties all its own and with a smaller chemical...
Unfortunately the same chemical activity that makes white phosphorus glow in the dark also makes it poison the workmen in the factories and occasionally kill a mouse or an inquiring baby, so that matches of this sort were practically taxed out of existence by Federal law some years...
Nowadays the chemists have found other materials to take the place of white phosphorus, so that the "strike- anywhere" match has become a fairly digestible article. White phosphorus still finds use, however, to improve the vacuum in electric lamps, in making rat poisons, and, in smoke screens, for when a shell filled with it bursts, the phosphorus catches fire instantly and sprays its flaming drops in every direction, sending up a cloud of dense white smoke...
...better kind of phosphorus for matches is the red variety, which is used on the box in making safety matches, and catches fire if you rub it hard enough with the powdered glass and active chemicals in the head of the match. This is a mild-mannered, quiet sort of a substance, it doesn't catch fire in the air until you heat it quite hot, it won't dissolve in anything, and it can be eaten without any discomfort...
...third form of the element, known as black phosphorus, was discovered in 1910 at Harvard University by Professor Bridgman, who was studying the effects of high pressure...