If you've noticed that your car has thick smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe, it may be a sign that your engine needs some attention. Just like you can examine an animal's stool to get an idea of its health, you can pay attention to the quality of your car's exhaust to get an idea of what's going on inside the engine.
The word sulfur has old roots. It comes from the ancient Latin word for sulfur, sulpur, which later changed to sulphur, perhaps under the influence of the Arabic word for yellow, sufra.
Sulphur was known in ancient times and referred to in Genesis as brimstone. Assyrian texts dated around 700-600 BC refer to it as the product of the riverside, where deposits could be found. In the 9th century BC, Homer mentioned pest-averting sulphur.