万物简史 第130期:基本物质(2)

 The commercial potential for the stuff—which soon became known as phosphorus, from Greek and Latin roots meaning "light bearing"—was not lost on eager businesspeople, but the difficulties of manufacture made it too costly¹ to exploit. An ounce of phosphorus retailed² for six guineas—perhaps five hundred dollars in today's money—or more than gold.

它很快被称之为磷，这个名字源自希腊文和拉丁文，意思是“会发光的”。有眼光的实业界人士看到了这种物质的潜在商业价值，但生产的难度很大，成本太高，不好开发。一盎司(约28.35克)磷的零售价高达6几尼—很可能相当于今天的300英镑—换句话说，比黄金还要贵。

At first, soldiers were called on to provide the raw material, but such an arrangement was hardly conducive³ to industrial-scale production. In the 1750s a Swedish chemist named Karl (or Carl) Scheele devised a way to manufacture phosphorus in bulk without the slop or smell of urine. It was largely because of this mastery of phosphorus that Sweden became, and remains⁴, a leading producer of matches.

起先，人们号召士兵们提供原料，但这样的做法对工业规模的生产几乎无济于事。18世纪50年代，一位名叫卡尔·金勒的瑞典化学家发明了一种方法，不用又脏又臭的尿就能大量生产磷。很大程度上就是因为掌握了这种生产磷的方法，瑞典才成为——而且现在还是——火柴的一个主要生产国。

Scheele was both an extraordinary and extraordinarily⁵ luckless fellow. A poor pharmacist with little in the way of advanced apparatus⁶, he discovered eight elements—chlorine, fluorine, manganese, barium, molybdenum, tungsten, nitrogen, and oxygen—and got credit for none of them. In every case, his finds were either overlooked or made it into publication after someone else had made the same discovery independently. He also discovered many useful compounds, among them ammonia, glycerin, and tannic acid, and was the first to see the commercial potential of chlorine as a bleach—all breakthroughs that made other people extremely wealthy.

金勒既是个非同寻常的，又是个极其倒霉的人。他是个地位低下的药剂师，几乎在没有先进仪器的情况下发现了8种元素——氯、氟、锰、钡、钼、钨、氮和氧——但什么功劳也没有得到。每一次，他的发现要么不受人注意，要么在别人独立做出同样的发现以后才加以发表。他还发现了许多有用的化合物，其中有氨、甘油和单宁酸；他还认为氯可以用做漂白剂——具有潜在商业价值的第一人——这些重大的成就都使别人发了大财。

1 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

2 retailed   

vt.零售（retail的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• She retailed the neighbours' activities with relish. 她饶有兴趣地对邻居们的活动说三道四。
• The industrial secrets were retailed to a rival concern. 工业秘密被泄露给一家对立的公司。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 conducive   

adj.有益的，有助的

参考例句：

• This is a more conducive atmosphere for studying.这样的氛围更有利于学习。
• Exercise is conducive to good health.体育锻炼有助于增强体质。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

6 apparatus   

n.装置，器械；器具，设备

参考例句：

• The school's audio apparatus includes films and records.学校的视听设备包括放映机和录音机。
• They had a very refined apparatus.他们有一套非常精良的设备。