Alchemy phosphorus

The alchemists never succeeded in making gold from base metals, yet their experiments, recorded under a mystical and intentionally obscure terminology, gradually revealed metallic arsenic and antimony. Bismuth was discovered by practical miners. Finally, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, the pale light of phosphorus began to illumine the dark secrets of alchemy and to disclose the steady advance of scientific chemistry. 

Alchemy always had a strong experimental side. In their endless quest for the Philosopher s Stone, alchemists burnt, distilled, melted, and condensed all manner of substances and stumbled across many technologically important new compounds, such as phosphorus and nitric acid. But in the l600s there appeared a transitional group of natural philosophers whose primary objective was no longer to conduct the Great Work of alchemical transformation but to study and understand matter at a more... 

The secret of making phosphorus was much sought after by the court circle of chemists and natural philosophers. See Pamela H. Smith, The Business of Alchemy (Princeton University Press, 1994). 

Phosphorus was first discovered in 1669 by German physician Hennig Brand (ca. 1630-1692). Brand is somewhat famous in chemistry. He is sometimes called the last of the alchemists. Alchemy was a kind of pre-science that existed from about 500 bce to about the end of the I6th century. Alchemists wanted to find a way of changing lead, iron, and other metals into gold. They also wanted to find a way of having eternal life. Alchemy contained too much magic and mysticism to be a real science. But it developed a number of techniques and produced many new materials that were later found to be useful in modern chemistry. 

II expresses his belief in alchemy and contains absurd statements which injured his reputation. He regarded metals as composed of phosphorus, a colouring earth, a talc-like earth, and a salt in gold, mercury, platinum, and iron, the colouring earth is cobalt in copper it is a red earth. Fanciful compositions of salts are given. A second part of II which was to contain expen-mental proofs, never appeared, but III took its place. 

Although not known as early as carbon, tin, and lead, the Group 5A elements were all discovered before the founding of the United States. Antimony was known to the ancients and was a protected secret of the alchemists. Similarly, arsenic is mentioned in the mystical literature of alchemy, but its discovery is often attributed to Albertus Magnus because of his definitive descriptions of the element. Phosphorus was isolated by Brandt from human urine for a century before it was discovered in bones and in phosphate rock. Bismuth was probably known well before GeoflFrey described it so thoroughly, but he is usually listed as its discoverer. Nitrogen was discovered by Rutherford. 

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