Chemiluminescence 425 



wealth were involved in the discovery of phosphorus as in the 

 preparation of the Bolognian stone some seventy years before. 



All authorities agree that the discoverer was Hennig Brand or 

 Brandt (died 1692) , a physician of Hamburg, who hoped to amass 

 a fortime through the goal of alchemy. After dry distillation of the 

 solids of urine, Brand obtained his material, by reduction of the 

 phosphates in this liquid, about 1669. The first knowledge of the 

 new phosphorus came to scientific circles by way of Johann Kunckel 

 (1630-1702), the famous chemist of Dresden, later manager of a 

 glass-works in Berlin and finally counsellor on metals to King 

 Charles XI of Sweden. 



During one of his trips to Hamburg, Kunckel showed Baldewein's 

 phosphor to a friend, was told of Brand's discovery and was later 

 introduced to Brand, who sho^ved him the phosphorus.^ According 

 to some accounts, Kunckel wrote his friend, Johan Daniel Krafft, 

 another chemist and commercial aq-ent of Dresden, concerning^ the 

 discovery, and Krafft immediately journeyed to Hamburg and 

 bought Brand's secret for 200 thalers. According to Leibnitz (1710) 

 and certain letters ^ which still exist, both Kunkel and Krafft learned 

 the secret from Brand during a visit in which they suggested that 

 the new material might be sold to some royal person for a high 

 price. Apparently no purchase was made at that time. 



At any rate Kunckel was stimulated to experiment with urine, 

 succeeded in making phosphorus himself, and -wrote his well-known 

 tract on the subject Offentlische Zuschrijt voin Phosphoro mirabili 

 unci (lessen leuchtenden W under pilule n (Wittenberg, 1678) . The 

 properties of phosphorus, called " noctiluca constans," had been 

 previously described by Kunckel's friend Kirchmaier in 1676 and it 

 was mentioned in J. S. Elsholtz's (1623-1688) De Phosphoris Qiia- 

 tour Observationes (Berlin, 1676) . Elsholtz was physician and 

 chemist to the Elector of Brandenburg and had seen phosphorus 

 exhibited at court by Krafft. He was greatly intrigued by the new 

 material and in 1677 gave an account of a liquid phosphorus in a 

 flask, which he called " ignis frigidus." A plate of this publication 

 reproduced as figure 35, shows " phosphorus stellatus, phosphorus 

 nubilosus and phosphorus literatus," three varieties or rather three 

 new ways of exhibiting the spectacle of phosphorus. His observa- 

 tions were summarized in a pamphlet published at Berlin in 1681, 

 De Phosphoris Observationes, etc. 



^ Brand's phosphorus is sometimes referred to as the hermetic phosphorus, for 

 example by O. Jacobaeus (1677) and R. Lentihus (1685). 



"Collected by H. Peters, Chem. Zeitung 26: 1190-1198, 1902 and Max Speter, Cheiyi. 

 Zeitung 53: 1005-1006, 1929; also Chem. tech. Rundschau 44: 1049-1051, 1929. 



