Matching sticks and phishing

"But how did they manage without electricity?" Conrad asked again. He was unable to imagine to live daily life without electricity.

"What can you not imagine without electricity?"

"Lighting, for example. It is not important now, but in schooltime, we need the lighting to read."

"They were using lamps, like we used in the Hydrogen Kingdom. The only difference, that they put petroleum into the lamps instead of Tritium molecules. There were lamps with Acetylene too. Those lamps had a very sharp light, so they were used in underground mines."

"Tv?"

"They didn't have television. They red newspapers instead, and all of them were gossiping. So the news were spread fast."

"But how did they have fun?"

"How do you have fun?" K.O. asked back. "They were playing, telling stories to each other, went to theaters, red books. Just like you."

"That's not so different! You said our lives were alike. So how did the discovery of matches change their lives? Why did they need matches at all?"

"The people in the old times also needed heating, of cooking food, boiling water. So they used firewood. But when you can't ignite fire, you have to feed the fire constantly, which consumes a lot of firewood and a lot of work. After inventing matches, the people were using less firewood at first, and some time later they could using gas. But the most popular development was made in the field of smoking tobacco."

"Bad habit." Nodded Conrad wisely.

"Yes, it is. But a hundred years ago it was very popular. At that time tobacco was only sold in the form of pipes and cigars. The cigars were very expensive, so most of the the people were using pipes to smoke. It was hard to ignite fire in a tiny place. They used small sticks to light them."

"Why did they put a chemical bulb to the top of the sticks?"

"Because they wanted to be the fire portable. There's no meaning to buy wooden sticks to use them only in the house. The people needed portable fire, so the inventors began to work. At first there were a match, which had to be dipped into sulfuric acid. It worked, but it was uncomfortable to use. The acid made its use to be dangerous too. So the next invention was using white Phosphorus. The inventor dipped the sticks into a mix with white Phosphorus, dried them, and sold them. It could be ignited by rubbing on a surface. Thus the fire was portable, and the men could smoke everywhere, in the parks, on trains, or even in restaurants."

"Practical thing."

"Well, there were dangers. White Phosphorus is poisonous, and prone to do spontaneous combustion."

"Spontaneous combustion? What does that mean?"

"That it could be lit just by itself."

"Well, it seems it was not practical at all."

"It was partly expensive, so people weren't happy, when a whole box of it ignited at once. On the other hand, it's quite uncomfortable if it inflamed in your back pocket and you were suffering burnings."

"Were the inventors able to eliminate the problems?"

"Yes, they could solve the problem. Nowadays they put Phosphorus on the side of the matchbox, not to the head of the matchsticks. Moreover, the Phosphorus they use is not the white one, but the red. It is not poisonous at all, so storing and using matches are safe now."

"But then why do we use white Phosphorus in rockets?" The boy asked in surprise. "If it is poisonous, and ignite itself… Isn't it going to blow up the rockets before time?"

"No. It will be separated from the Oxygen in the rockets. So could it?"

"No, if there is no oxygen, there is no combustion!" Conrad smiled triumphantly.

"Great!" K.O. smiled, with a thumb up. "However, we will need to take a few precautions when working with white Phosphorus."

"What kind of precautions?"

"You'll see soon!" K.O. smiled. "We have arrived!"

Conrad was amused. He was so tired and sleepy, and the farm was so far from the station. He couldn't believe, that they had reached it so soon. But something was off.

"Where are the Phosphorus atoms?" He asked, because he noticed some interesting fact. "I haven't even seen a single one on the road."

"The white Phosphorus are molecules, not atoms." A middle aged man corrected the boy.

He was the priest of the temple. They greeted each other, and he gave them the license to gather the amount of white Phosphorus for their rockets.

"But where are they?" Conrad asked and looking around to search for the molecules. But he only saw lakes. No pens, no greenhouses, or hangars. Just lakes.

"They are under the water." The priest gave them fishing rods. "We are farming the there, so we call our jobs Phosphorus farming, Pharming in short."

"And we are going to Phosphorus fishing, Phishing in short." K.O. laughed together with the priest.

"Follow me, and I show you how to deal with those rascals." The priest told them, and they all set out for the lakes.

It was a very nice place, with a lot of connected ponds, trees and greenery, small bridges, boats, and little statues about the white Phosphorus molecules.

"Caress their heads, to gather good luck!" The priest warned the boy.

Conrad looked at him suspiciously, but K.O. stroked the top of one of the small statues.

"A little luck never comes bad!" He smirked to the stunned boy.

"Can you handle a boat?" The priest asked them, when he noticed, that Conrad was looking longingly at the boats. Both of them shook their heads. "When you're done, let me know and you can try boating on the shallower lakes."

Conrad felt that they were walking out of the world. He had already walked a lot, so he wasn't happy about the extra walk. But he was happy to finally try fishing. Conrad had always wanted to try it, but his father never got time to take him to a lake, although he was promising a lot. This year they would have gone fishing in the Maldives together. His father promised him. Of course, they didn't go. At least not together. But strangely, Conrad didn't mind. He enjoyed being able to fish with K.O. for the first time. He listened diligently to the priest's explanation of the underwater tank, which actually turned out to be an open-air cage, but it was under the water.

"The white Phosphorus are tetrahedral structures of four atoms. The hook gets caught in one of the ties and the molecule can be pulled underwater into the tank."

"Why don't we pull them out of the water?" Conrad asked.

"Because they are poisonous. They like fatty things, so they don't like to swim. That's why we are keeping them under the water. They are just sitting and meditating peacefully on the bottom of the lake. This way they can't attack anglers. So keep them under the water. I show you how. "

The priest swung the fishing rod and the hook dipped far into the water. After that, he started rewinding the line and suddenly the phishing rod tightened.

"We caught one!" He told to Conrad. "Do you want to try to gather it?"

The boy nodded, and the priest gave him back the phishing rod. He slowly wrapped the spool as the two adults told him, then ended up pulling a strange molecule to the surface. Its structure was similar to that of Methane, but it was hollow inside. This is where the hook got stuck. The priest quickly took the phishing rod from his hand and tipped the molecule over the wall of the tank. He pulled on a glove and then picked out the hook from the molecule.

"See, it isn't difficult!" He said, and the others nodded.

The priest were waiting for both them to collect one molecules each alone, after that he wished them a good luck and left.

"It is a great fun!" Conrad noted, when they were taking a short break.

"I am glad, you like it!" K.O. replied politely, but speaking the truth, he was also enjoying the phishing, probably more than Conrad.

"I wonder, how they make this structure." The boy asked, while observing the tetrahedral molecules. "I see, that every one of them has three free hands, but why don't they simply make three bonds between two Phosphorus atoms, like the Carbon atoms do?"

"They are too big to have triple bonds. A double bond is okay, but the third hands are too far from each other to shake hands."

"They are too fat to shake hands."Conrad laughed.

"Moreover from the Phosphorus atoms, all the others are gluttonous. They like to collect as many electrons as possible!"

"Do you mean they take it from the little ones?" Conrad asked in shock.

"Oh, no! Nope. You know that's not possible. You cannot take an electron from an atom with impunity. It always has consequences, so the other atoms don't do that either. They peacefully share it with others."