Hennig Brand

Hennig Brand (; or ) was a German alchemist who lived and worked in Hamburg. In 1669, Brand accidentally discovered the chemical element phosphorus while searching for the "philosopher's stone", a substance which was believed to transmute base metals into gold.

Biography

Brand was born in 1630. Some sources describe his origins as working class and indicate that he had been an apprentice glassmaker as a young man. However, correspondence by his second wife Margaretha states that he was of high social standing. He held a post as a junior army officer during the Thirty Years' War and his first wife's dowry was substantial, allowing him to pursue alchemy on leaving the army.

He was one of the many searchers for the philosopher's stone. In the process, he accidentally discovered phosphorus.

He is thought to have died in either or 1710.

Discovery of phosphorus Like other alchemists of the time, Brand searched for the "philosopher's stone", a substance which supposedly transformed base metals (like lead) into gold. By the time his first wife died he had exhausted her money on this pursuit. He then married his second wife Margaretha, a wealthy widow whose financial resources allowed him to continue the search.

Like many before him, he was interested in urine and tried combining it with various other materials, in hundreds of combinations. He had seen a recipe in a book 400 Auserlensene Chemische Process, by F. T. Kessler of Strasbourg, published in 1630, for using alum, saltpetre (potassium nitrate) and concentrated urine to turn base metals into silver (a recipe which did not work).

Around 1669 he heated residues from boiled-down urine on his furnace until the retort was red hot, where all of a sudden glowing fumes filled it and liquid dripped out, bursting into flames. He could catch the liquid in a jar and cover it, where it solidified and continued to give off a pale-green glow. What he collected was phosphorus, which he named from the Greek word for "light-bearing" or "light-bearer."

To people of the time phosphorus seemed to glow with a "life force" that did not diminish over time (and did not need re-exposure to light like the previously discovered Bologna Stone). Brand kept his discovery secret, as alchemists of the time did, and worked with the phosphorus trying unsuccessfully to use it to produce gold.

His recipe was: Let urine stand for days until it gives off a pungent smell. Boil urine to reduce it to a thick syrup. Heat until a red oil distills up from it, and draw that off. Allow the remainder to cool, where it consists of a black spongy upper part and a salty lower part. Discard the salt, mix the red oil back into the black material. Heat that mixture strongly for 16 hours. First white fumes come off, then an oil, then phosphorus. he later sold the recipe for 200 thalers to a from Dresden. Subsequently, both Swedish chemist Johann Kunckel (in 1678) and Irish chemist Robert Boyle (in 1680) were able to independently discover phosphorus; the latter's assistant, Ambrose Godfrey-Hanckwitz, later made a business of manufacturing phosphorus from 1707 onwards.