How do you make phosphorus?

Answer 1

Industrially it's made by grinding up phosphate rock and heating it along with coke (the carbon kind, not the soft drink kind) and sand to 1200oC or so to produce phosphorus vapors that can then be condensed into white phosphorus.

Phosphorus is flammable and white phosphorus spontaneously ignites in air. It's also quite toxic; as little as 15 mg has been known to cause death.

The original method refined it from urine, using charcoal to bind the phosphorous and then boiling it and running the gas through water. You can do this on a small scale, though be warned that the phosphorous you get will burst spontaneously into flame on contact with air. This method is not used on industrial scales.

Answer 2

Phosphorus is typically extracted from phosphate rock through a chemical process called the "wet process" or by burning white phosphorus in a vacuum. It can also be obtained as a byproduct of other industrial processes, such as steel production or wastewater treatment. The extracted phosphorus is then further processed and purified for various applications.