German alchemist · born c. 1630
Hennig Brand
Hennig Brand is the first person in history known by name to have discovered an element. In 1669, searching for the philosopher’s stone, he boiled down urine and obtained phosphorus.
How Phosphorus was found
Brand collected large quantities of urine, some say around 5,500 litres, let it stand until it putrefied, and boiled it to a paste. Heating the residue strongly produced a white, waxy substance that glowed green in the dark and burst into flame in air.
He named it phosphorus, “light-bearer”. Brand kept his method secret and sold it to others; Johann Kunckel and later Robert Boyle worked out their own processes. For a century phosphorus was made from urine, until Scheele and Gahn showed it could be extracted from bones.
Life and career
Born c. 1630
Little is known of Brand’s life. He lived in Hamburg and may have served as a junior officer in the Thirty Years’ War. His first wife’s dowry, and later his second wife’s money, funded his alchemy.