A review by menfrommarrs
The 13th Element: The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire, and Phosphorus by John Emsley

2.0

I am not a fair judge of such a book. Were I a chemist or an alchemist or a murderer, I'd probably be singing its praises right now. If you are uL22 bn2 this1!

And I can’t even figure out how to hang numbers in mid-air, or dangle them from the base line. Well, just imagine it: uL² ♥2 bn2 this1!

Too little interest in the history and who’s who of the phosphorus world, but I did find some things of interest.
Matchstick girls on strike, Salvation Army’s campaign to mobilize public opinion for better working conditions, poison recipes, firework bombs, day-glow people, spontaneous human combustion, environmental impact.

Multitude of facts were boring, antidotes were interesting.