And remember how many researchers of the past spent years of their lives looking for the "philosopher's stone" - a way to turn ordinary metal into gold. Alchemists for some reason were sure that gold can be obtained from some simple elements and not be sought in the earth. The rulers supported all these studies, since everyone wanted to be instantly rich.
One such scientist, the 17th century alchemist Henning Brand, suggested that things similar in color should have the same properties. Developing his idea further, he found that human urine resembled gold in its shade, and decided to conduct an ambitious "scientific" experiment to evaporate large volumes of urine in the hope of obtaining some gold.
That's what came out of it…
The indefatigable experimenter took up the distillation of human urine, one might say, on an industrial scale: in the soldiers' barracks, he collected a total of a ton of it! And evaporated to a syrupy state (not in one go, of course!), And after distillation again distilled the resulting "urine oil" and calcined it for a long time.
As a result, white dust appeared in the retort, settling to the bottom and glowing, therefore it was called by Brand "cold fire" (kaltes Feuer). Brand's contemporaries called this substance phosphorus because of its ability to glow in the dark (other Greek jwsjoroV).
In 1682 Brand published the results of his research, and now he is rightly considered the discoverer of element No. 15. Phosphorus was the first element, the discovery of which is documented, and its discoverer is known.
The interest in the new substance was tremendous, and Brand took advantage of it - he demonstrated phosphorus only for money or exchanged small amounts of it for gold. Despite numerous efforts, the Hamburg merchant could not fulfill his cherished dream - to obtain gold from lead with the help of "cold fire", and therefore he soon sold the recipe for the new substance to a certain Kraft from Dresden for two hundred thalers. The new owner managed to amass a much larger fortune on phosphorus - with a "cold fire" he traveled throughout Europe and demonstrated it to scientists, high-ranking officials and even royalty, for example, Robert Boyle, Gottfried Leibniz, Charles II. Although the method for preparing phosphorus was kept a closely guarded secret, in 1682 it was obtained by Robert Boyle,but he also announced his methodology only at a closed meeting of the Royal Society of London. Boyle's method was made public after his death, in 1692.
Promotional video:
In the spring of 1676 Kraft arranged a session of experiments with phosphorus at the court of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg. At 9 pm on April 24, all the candles in the room were extinguished, and Kraft showed those present experiments with the "eternal flame", without revealing, however, the method by which this magical substance was prepared.
In the spring of the following year, Kraft came to the court of Duke Johann Friedrich in Hanover3, where at that time the German philosopher and mathematician GW Leibniz (1646-1716) served as a librarian. Here, Kraft arranged a session of experiments with phosphorus, showing, in particular, two flasks that glowed like fireflies. Leibniz, like Kunkel, was extremely interested in the new substance. In the first session, he asked Kraft if a large piece of this substance would be able to illuminate an entire room. Kraft agreed that this was possible, but not practical, since the preparation of the substance was very complicated.
Who had one? I had.
Leibniz's attempts to persuade Kraft to sell the secret to the duke failed. Then Leibniz went to Hamburg to see Brand himself. Here he managed to conclude a contract between Duke Johann Friedrich and Brand, according to which the first was obliged to pay Brand 60 thalers for revealing the secret. From that time on, Leibniz entered into regular correspondence with Brand.
At about the same time, I. I. Becher (1635-1682) came to Hamburg with the aim of luring Brand to the Duke of Mecklenburg. However, Brand again intercepted Leibniz and took him to Hanover to Duke Johann Friedrich. Leibniz was fully convinced that Brand was very close to the discovery of the "philosopher's stone", and therefore advised the duke not to let him go until he completed this task. Brand, however, stayed in Hanover for five weeks, prepared fresh supplies of phosphorus outside the city, showed, according to the contract, the secret of production and left.
At the same time, Brand prepared a significant amount of phosphorus for the physicist Christian Huygens, who studied the nature of light, and sent the phosphorus stock to Paris.
Brand, however, was very dissatisfied with the price that Leibniz and Duke Johann Friedrich had given him for revealing the secret of phosphorus production. He sent Leibniz an angry letter in which he complained that the amount received was not even enough to support his family in Hamburg and pay travel expenses. Similar letters were sent by Leibniz and Brand's wife, Margarita.
Brand and Kraft were dissatisfied, to whom he expressed insult in letters, reproaching him for reselling the secret for 1000 thalers to England. Kraft forwarded this letter to Leibniz, who advised Duke Johann Friedrich not to annoy Brand, to pay him more generously to reveal the secret, fearing that the author of the discovery, in the form of an act of revenge, would tell someone else the recipe for making phosphorus. Leibniz sent a reassuring letter to Brand himself.
Apparently, Brand received a reward, because in 1679 he again came to Hanover and worked there for two months, receiving a weekly salary of 10 thalers with additional table and travel expenses. Leibniz's correspondence with Brand, judging by the letters stored in the Hanover Library, continued until 1684.
Let's return now to Kunkel. According to Leibniz, Kunkel learned the recipe for making phosphorus through Kraft and set to work. But his first experiments were unsuccessful. He sent Brand letter after letter, in which he complained that he had been sent a recipe very incomprehensible to another person. In a letter written in 1676 from Wittenberg, where Kunkel lived at the time, he asked Brand about the details of the trial.
In the end, Kunkel succeeded in his experiments, slightly modifying Brand's method. Adding a little sand to dry urine before distilling it, he received phosphorus and … claimed the independence of the discovery. In the same year, in July, Kunkel told about his successes to his friend, professor at the University of Wittenberg, Kaspar Kirchmeier, who published a work on this subject under the title "Permanent night lamp, sometimes sparkling, which has been long sought, now found." In this article, Kirchmeyer speaks of phosphorus as a long-known luminous stone, but does not use the term "phosphorus" itself, apparently not grafted by that time.
In England, independently of Brand, Kunkel and Kirchmeyer, phosphorus was obtained in 1680 by R. Boyle (1627-1691). Boyle knew about phosphorus from the same Kraft. As early as May 1677, phosphorus was demonstrated at the Royal Society of London. In the summer of the same year, Kraft himself came with phosphorus to England. Boyle, according to his own account, visited Kraft and saw his phosphorus in solid and liquid form. In gratitude for the warm welcome, Kraft, saying goodbye to Boyle, hinted to him that the main substance of his phosphorus was something inherent in the human body. Obviously, this hint was enough to kick-start Boyle's work. After Kraft's departure, he began testing blood, bones, hair, urine, and in 1680 his efforts to obtain the luminous element were crowned with success.
Boyle began to exploit his discovery in a company with an assistant - the German Gaukwitz. After Boyle's death in 1691, Gaukwitz expanded the production of phosphorus, improving it on a commercial scale. By selling phosphorus for three pounds an ounce and supplying it to scientific institutions and individual scientists in Europe, Gaukwitz made a huge fortune. To establish commercial ties, he traveled to Holland, France, Italy and Germany. In London itself, Gaukwitz founded the famous pharmaceutical company that became famous during his lifetime. It is curious that, despite all his experiments with phosphorus, sometimes very dangerous, Gaukwitz lived to be 80 years old, having outlived his three sons and all those who participated in the work related to the early history of phosphorus.
Since the receipt of phosphorus by Kunkel and Boyle, it has rapidly declined in value as a result of competition from inventors. In the end, the heirs of the inventors began to acquaint everyone with the secret of its production for 10 thalers, constantly lowering the price. In 1743 A. S. Marggraf found an even better method for the production of phosphorus from urine and immediately published it. fishing has ceased to be profitable.
At present, phosphorus is not produced anywhere by the Brand – Kunkel – Boyle method, since it is completely unprofitable. For the sake of historical interest, we will nevertheless give a description of their method.
Rotting urine is evaporated to a syrupy state. The resulting thick mass is kneaded with a threefold amount of white sand, placed in a retort equipped with a receiver, and heated for 8 hours over even fire until volatiles are removed, then heating is increased. The receiver fills with white vapor, which then turns into a bluish solid and luminous phosphorus.
Phosphorus got its name due to its ability to glow in the dark (from the Greek - luminiferous). Among some Russian chemists there was a desire to give the element a purely Russian name: "gem", "brighter", but these names did not take root.
Lavoisier, as a result of a detailed study of the combustion of phosphorus, was the first to recognize it as a chemical element.
The presence of phosphorus in urine gave chemists a reason to look for it in other parts of the animal's body. In 1715, phosphorus was found in the brain. The significant presence of phosphorus in it served as the basis for the assertion that "without phosphorus there is no thought." In 1769, Yu. G. Gan found phosphorus in bones, and two years later K. V. Scheele proved that bones consist mainly of calcium phosphate, and proposed a method for obtaining phosphorus from ash left after burning bones. Finally, in 1788 M. G. Klaprot and J. L. Proust showed that calcium phosphate is an extremely widespread mineral in nature.
Allotropic modification of phosphorus - red phosphorus - was discovered in 1847 by A. Schrötter. In a work entitled "The New Allotropic State of Phosphorus," Schrötter writes that sunlight changes white phosphorus to red, and factors such as dampness and atmospheric air have no effect. The red phosphorus was separated by Schrötter by treatment with carbon disulfide. He also prepared red phosphorus by heating white phosphorus to a temperature of about 250 ° C in an inert gas. At the same time, it was found that a further increase in temperature again leads to the formation of a white modification.
Interestingly enough, Schrötter was the first to predict the use of red phosphorus in the match industry. At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1855, red phosphorus, already obtained by factory, was demonstrated.
The Russian scientist A. A. Musin-Pushkin in 1797 received a new modification of phosphorus - purple phosphorus. This discovery is mistakenly attributed to I. V. Gittorf, who, repeating almost completely the Musin-Pushkin method, obtained purple phosphorus only in 1853.
In 1934, Professor P. W. Bridgman, subjecting white phosphorus to a pressure of up to 1100 atm, turned it into black and thus received a new allotropic modification of the element. Along with the color, the physical and chemical properties of phosphorus have changed: white phosphorus, for example, ignites spontaneously in air, and black, like red, does not possess this property.
