1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,000 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, the production 2 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:12,800 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome 3 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:16,160 Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. 4 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:20,200 Speaker 1: Every year, there's a thing in Cambridge, Massachusetts called bo Fest. 5 00:00:21,079 --> 00:00:23,400 Speaker 1: It's held in other places too, but the wedding Cambridge 6 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:25,079 Speaker 1: on the m T campus is the one that I 7 00:00:25,120 --> 00:00:29,120 Speaker 1: go to. It's the Festival of bad ad hoc Hypotheses. 8 00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:33,560 Speaker 1: It's a place where people present their scientific papers, except 9 00:00:33,560 --> 00:00:38,520 Speaker 1: the scientific papers are fake and also funny and very 10 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:41,920 Speaker 1: were well argued and sometimes really plausible on top of 11 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:45,800 Speaker 1: being so hilarious. So like, for example, last time, the 12 00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:49,120 Speaker 1: winning talk was all about the role of noise in 13 00:00:49,159 --> 00:00:51,640 Speaker 1: the spread of bubonic plague in the fourteenth century, and 14 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:53,720 Speaker 1: it was accompanied by a whole lot of pictures from 15 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:56,160 Speaker 1: illuminated manuscripts. And I don't want to get into more 16 00:00:56,200 --> 00:00:58,480 Speaker 1: detail than that, because they put videos of all these 17 00:00:58,520 --> 00:01:01,280 Speaker 1: things online, and I want anybody who goes to watch 18 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:05,320 Speaker 1: it to see all the hilarious reveals firsthand. It is 19 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:09,640 Speaker 1: often a very cool blending of science and history and 20 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:14,480 Speaker 1: fakery and hilarity altogether. And the reason I'm talking about 21 00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:17,360 Speaker 1: this is that the winners of this very silly, nerdy 22 00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:20,399 Speaker 1: thing used to get a three D printed representation of 23 00:01:20,480 --> 00:01:23,920 Speaker 1: Darwin looking doubtful, but now they get a trophy of 24 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:31,400 Speaker 1: hennig Brand discovering phosphorus. Hennig Brand discovered phosphorus by boiling p. 25 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:35,800 Speaker 1: So the first time I heard about this at bo Fest, 26 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:38,000 Speaker 1: I was like, we gotta do a podcast on that. 27 00:01:38,120 --> 00:01:40,399 Speaker 1: It has has taken me a few years to actually 28 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:43,240 Speaker 1: get to it in case it was not clear, this 29 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:51,040 Speaker 1: episode is going to have a lot of your Internet hooray. 30 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:52,960 Speaker 1: I love a p joke. They're very funny to me 31 00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:56,960 Speaker 1: because I'm crass. One of my cousins has a daughter 32 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:00,040 Speaker 1: who's just at the age to be having sleepovers and 33 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:03,080 Speaker 1: and at the age where mentioning of any bodily function 34 00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:07,680 Speaker 1: is just instantly hilarious. And I like, remember, as a kid, 35 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:10,960 Speaker 1: if somebody was like pp it would just send everyone 36 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:14,400 Speaker 1: into giggles forever. Yeah, it was very different as a child, 37 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:16,520 Speaker 1: you know, I was raised with a lot of shame 38 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:19,040 Speaker 1: about your body and anything it might do or pretty. 39 00:02:19,639 --> 00:02:22,640 Speaker 1: It wasn't until I became a little bit older and 40 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:24,120 Speaker 1: out in the world where I was like, you guys, 41 00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:27,280 Speaker 1: urine is really funny. But as a child, if you 42 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:30,480 Speaker 1: said something about pe to sleepover, there would be mortification 43 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:36,240 Speaker 1: and like, oh no, it was a very different culture. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 44 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:40,119 Speaker 1: a little Victorian at my house. In that regard um, 45 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:43,640 Speaker 1: that's to the matter in hand. Bosphorus is a chemical element, 46 00:02:43,840 --> 00:02:46,640 Speaker 1: and if you need a quick chemistry refresher, elements are 47 00:02:46,680 --> 00:02:49,919 Speaker 1: a basic building block of matter, and elements are made 48 00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:52,960 Speaker 1: of atoms, and atoms are made of subatomic particles, but 49 00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:56,200 Speaker 1: you cannot take those sub atomic particles out of an 50 00:02:56,240 --> 00:03:00,000 Speaker 1: atom by ordinary chemical means. A pure piece of an 51 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:04,040 Speaker 1: element like phosphorus is made of phosphorus atoms, and one 52 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:07,240 Speaker 1: atom of phosphorus is the smallest piece of phosphorus that 53 00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:13,200 Speaker 1: you can get. Yeah, I'll take one phosphorus please. When 54 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:15,760 Speaker 1: I wrote that, I made it almost sound like all 55 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:19,160 Speaker 1: elements are made of phosphorus. That's not It's that all 56 00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:21,880 Speaker 1: elements are made of atoms of that type of element. 57 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:25,760 Speaker 1: And so several chemical elements were known to the ancient world. 58 00:03:26,280 --> 00:03:28,720 Speaker 1: You'll see slightly different lists depending on where you look, 59 00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:37,040 Speaker 1: but in general, humans have known about gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, zinc, arsenic, antimony, mercury, sulfur, 60 00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:40,160 Speaker 1: and carbon for thousands of years. Pretty much any ancient 61 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:43,200 Speaker 1: culture that has written records names at least some of 62 00:03:43,240 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 1: these in those records. These elements have all been known 63 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:48,800 Speaker 1: about for so long that we could not really say 64 00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:52,520 Speaker 1: who discovered them or who first concluded that there was 65 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:56,280 Speaker 1: anything special about them. Phosphorus, on the other hand, is 66 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:59,480 Speaker 1: the first element who's discoverer we can name, and that 67 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:03,240 Speaker 1: was hennig Brand in about sixteen sixty nine. But unlike 68 00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:06,880 Speaker 1: most of the other elements we just listed, phosphorus doesn't 69 00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:10,560 Speaker 1: exist in its pure elemental form out in the natural world. 70 00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:15,200 Speaker 1: It's extremely reactive, so instead it's found in phosphate compounds. 71 00:04:15,760 --> 00:04:19,120 Speaker 1: Those compounds are used to produce elemental phosphorus, which is 72 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:23,440 Speaker 1: called white or yellow phosphorus. White phosphorus can then be 73 00:04:23,560 --> 00:04:27,280 Speaker 1: used to make more stable allotropes, including red and black phosphorus. 74 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:31,680 Speaker 1: In casual use, the words phosphorus and phosphates are used 75 00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:35,080 Speaker 1: almost interchangeably, sort of like how people say carbon I 76 00:04:35,160 --> 00:04:39,760 Speaker 1: mean carbon dioxide. Phosphates are fundamentally necessary to life on Earth. 77 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:43,200 Speaker 1: They're part of the structure of DNA and RNA. They're 78 00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:47,039 Speaker 1: also a component and a denizine triphosphate or ATP, which 79 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:52,160 Speaker 1: carries energy within all living cells. Calcium phosphate helps provide 80 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:54,760 Speaker 1: the strength in our bones and teeth. So I mean, 81 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:56,960 Speaker 1: it's just not an exaggeration to say that we would 82 00:04:56,960 --> 00:05:01,960 Speaker 1: be dead without phosphorus. Are very s she People have 83 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:06,440 Speaker 1: also been intentionally using phosphorus for thousands of years before 84 00:05:06,520 --> 00:05:09,680 Speaker 1: Brand discovered it, without knowing that that was what they 85 00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:12,440 Speaker 1: were doing. In some parts of the world, the soil 86 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:15,159 Speaker 1: doesn't contain a lot of phosphorus, and even in places 87 00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:18,440 Speaker 1: where the soil starts out phosphate rich, it loses its 88 00:05:18,440 --> 00:05:22,360 Speaker 1: phosphates and other nutrients over time through farming. For as 89 00:05:22,400 --> 00:05:26,760 Speaker 1: long as people have deliberately cultivated crops, they've also understood 90 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:29,000 Speaker 1: that there was something about the soil that needed to 91 00:05:29,040 --> 00:05:32,080 Speaker 1: be replenished in order for crops to continue to thrive. 92 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:35,000 Speaker 1: There a lot of the strategies people have used to 93 00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:37,440 Speaker 1: try to make their crops grow better have really been 94 00:05:37,480 --> 00:05:41,440 Speaker 1: adding phosphorus, along with the other essential nutrients of nitrogen 95 00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:45,880 Speaker 1: and potassium, back into the soil. As examples, the practice 96 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:49,080 Speaker 1: of burning off the stubble of last year's crop doesn't 97 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 1: just clear the land for new planting. The ash also 98 00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:55,719 Speaker 1: contains phosphorus, which goes back into the soil. People have 99 00:05:55,839 --> 00:05:59,560 Speaker 1: also fertilized their crops with things like manure, urine, fish, 100 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:03,360 Speaker 1: and easter shells, all of which contained phosphorus and other nutrients. 101 00:06:03,880 --> 00:06:07,960 Speaker 1: Crop rotation takes advantage of the differences and how different 102 00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:11,760 Speaker 1: plants use nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus to try to keep 103 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:15,120 Speaker 1: all three of those readily available in the soil. People 104 00:06:15,279 --> 00:06:18,840 Speaker 1: did things like this for centuries without knowing what phosphorus 105 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:21,800 Speaker 1: was or that the crops that they were growing needed it. 106 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:26,040 Speaker 1: Ancient people's use of phosphorus also wasn't limited to agriculture. 107 00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:29,279 Speaker 1: As one example, for thousands of years, people have used 108 00:06:29,279 --> 00:06:33,040 Speaker 1: stale urine to clean things. A big reason for this 109 00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:36,720 Speaker 1: is that urine contains urea, which decays into ammonia when 110 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:39,760 Speaker 1: it's left out for a long time. But urine also 111 00:06:39,800 --> 00:06:43,000 Speaker 1: contains a lot of phosphates, and phosphates helped make other 112 00:06:43,040 --> 00:06:47,200 Speaker 1: cleaning agents more efficient. Please don't take this as any 113 00:06:47,320 --> 00:06:53,960 Speaker 1: sort of household cleaning tip. When we were in San 114 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:58,360 Speaker 1: Francisco at the at the end of our tour last year, 115 00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:03,400 Speaker 1: I went to the book Binders Museum and uh that 116 00:07:03,400 --> 00:07:06,000 Speaker 1: that I had a guided tour of the Bookbinder's Museum, 117 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:07,600 Speaker 1: and one of the things that I learned about is 118 00:07:07,680 --> 00:07:10,760 Speaker 1: how in one element or one part of the book 119 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:15,240 Speaker 1: binding printing process, there were these little ink daubers that 120 00:07:15,280 --> 00:07:17,680 Speaker 1: were sort of leather covered things that you would dobb 121 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:18,760 Speaker 1: in the ink and you would put that on the 122 00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:22,400 Speaker 1: plate that you were going to print, and uh, if 123 00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:25,480 Speaker 1: that dried out, your apprentice had to go and clean 124 00:07:25,520 --> 00:07:27,920 Speaker 1: them and start completely over. So part of the apprentice's 125 00:07:28,040 --> 00:07:31,520 Speaker 1: job was to keep that nice and moist. And the 126 00:07:31,560 --> 00:07:34,200 Speaker 1: tour guide said, do you have any ideas of what 127 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:36,040 Speaker 1: they might have used to clean these things? And I 128 00:07:36,080 --> 00:07:38,720 Speaker 1: was like, I bet it's urine, because that was the 129 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:42,360 Speaker 1: thing that I could think of. It would be, you know, 130 00:07:42,520 --> 00:07:46,160 Speaker 1: in the early days of book binding, would probably used 131 00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:49,560 Speaker 1: to be clean to clean something. And she's specified that 132 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:52,600 Speaker 1: it was stale urine, and that is for the reason 133 00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:56,360 Speaker 1: that we just said. So. Of course, when hennig Brand 134 00:07:56,480 --> 00:07:59,720 Speaker 1: was alive, people did not know what phosphorus was or 135 00:07:59,760 --> 00:08:01,640 Speaker 1: that it was connected to all of this, and even 136 00:08:01,720 --> 00:08:05,520 Speaker 1: after he made his discovery, people didn't really understand what 137 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:09,680 Speaker 1: it was he had found. At the time, European scientists 138 00:08:09,720 --> 00:08:13,400 Speaker 1: still understood the world in terms of not the chemical 139 00:08:13,560 --> 00:08:16,720 Speaker 1: elements that we think about today, but the four elements 140 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:20,360 Speaker 1: of earth, air, fire, and water. The field of alchemy 141 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:23,720 Speaker 1: was just starting to evolve into the field of chemistry 142 00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:26,960 Speaker 1: when he lived, and the definition of elements was just 143 00:08:27,120 --> 00:08:31,520 Speaker 1: starting to evolve from those four elements into more like 144 00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:35,240 Speaker 1: today's definition. And there's more about the shift from alchemy 145 00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:38,679 Speaker 1: to chemistry in our most recent Saturday classic, but as 146 00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:41,920 Speaker 1: it relates to Hennig Brand. By the sixteen sixties, there 147 00:08:41,920 --> 00:08:45,600 Speaker 1: were still a few alchemists searching for the fabled Philosopher's Stone, 148 00:08:45,880 --> 00:08:48,800 Speaker 1: which was believed to turn base metals into gold and 149 00:08:48,840 --> 00:08:51,880 Speaker 1: produce an elixir that could cure diseases in prolonged life, 150 00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:55,560 Speaker 1: and Brand was one of them. Hennig Brand's discovery of 151 00:08:55,600 --> 00:08:58,360 Speaker 1: phosphorus came about because he thought the secret to the 152 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:02,959 Speaker 1: Philosopher's Stone might be found in urine. And we'll get 153 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:05,040 Speaker 1: to why he thought that on how he made his 154 00:09:05,080 --> 00:09:15,920 Speaker 1: discovery after a sponsor break. We do not know all 155 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:19,560 Speaker 1: that much about Hennig Brand as a person. Sometimes his 156 00:09:19,720 --> 00:09:23,920 Speaker 1: name is spelled Henning instead of Hennig. Sometimes his last 157 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:26,240 Speaker 1: name is b R. A. N. T or b R 158 00:09:26,320 --> 00:09:29,199 Speaker 1: A n D T instead of b R A n D. 159 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:32,880 Speaker 1: He was probably born in Hamburg and what's now Germany 160 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:36,200 Speaker 1: sometime around sixteen thirty. He seems to have spent some 161 00:09:36,280 --> 00:09:39,120 Speaker 1: time as a low level army officer during the Thirty 162 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:41,720 Speaker 1: Years War, and that suggests that he was from a 163 00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:44,680 Speaker 1: middle class family because he was an officer, so probably 164 00:09:44,720 --> 00:09:47,640 Speaker 1: they were not very poor, but also he was not 165 00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:50,280 Speaker 1: of a very high rank, so they probably weren't all 166 00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:54,120 Speaker 1: that prominent either. In addition to his army service, Brand 167 00:09:54,160 --> 00:09:56,559 Speaker 1: seems to have done at least part of an apprenticeship 168 00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:00,600 Speaker 1: with a glassblower before turning his attention to alchemy. This 169 00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:02,520 Speaker 1: would have given him the skills to make some of 170 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:06,000 Speaker 1: the glass vessels used in alchemy, and a glassblower's furnace 171 00:10:06,040 --> 00:10:08,840 Speaker 1: would have been useful to his alchemical pursuits as well. 172 00:10:09,559 --> 00:10:11,360 Speaker 1: At some point in all of this he married a 173 00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:14,400 Speaker 1: woman whose dowry was large enough to fund his research. 174 00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:18,920 Speaker 1: After Brand's first wife died, he remarried a woman named Margaretta, 175 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:22,720 Speaker 1: who had also been married before. Her son became Brand's 176 00:10:22,760 --> 00:10:26,040 Speaker 1: assistant in his workshop, and her family's money continued to 177 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:29,040 Speaker 1: pay for all of his experiments. He may have also 178 00:10:29,200 --> 00:10:32,880 Speaker 1: presented himself as a physician, although according to a nineteenth 179 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:36,920 Speaker 1: century history of chemistry, he was quote an uncouth physician 180 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:39,840 Speaker 1: who knew not a word of Latin. As we said 181 00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:42,920 Speaker 1: before the break, Brand was looking for the Philosopher's Stone, 182 00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:45,400 Speaker 1: which was believed to turn base metals into gold and 183 00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:49,520 Speaker 1: produce the elixir of life. Many alchemists believed that the 184 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:53,360 Speaker 1: key to the Philosopher's Stone was somewhere in human bodily fluids, 185 00:10:53,920 --> 00:10:57,240 Speaker 1: and the fluid the Brand focused on was p Not 186 00:10:57,360 --> 00:10:59,320 Speaker 1: only is your in a bodily fluid, but it is 187 00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:02,840 Speaker 1: also yelled low, you know, like gold to be clear. 188 00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:05,520 Speaker 1: Bread was not the only person who thought that maybe 189 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:08,920 Speaker 1: urine had something to do with gold. Urine was pretty 190 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:12,280 Speaker 1: mysterious at the time. Nobody knew how the body produced 191 00:11:12,320 --> 00:11:15,320 Speaker 1: it or why it was yellow, but they did know 192 00:11:15,480 --> 00:11:18,440 Speaker 1: that it did all kinds of fascinating and seemingly magical 193 00:11:18,520 --> 00:11:20,920 Speaker 1: things we talked about. It's used as a cleaning agent 194 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:23,880 Speaker 1: before the break, but it was also used in tanning 195 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:27,840 Speaker 1: leather and dyeing fabric, and in all kinds of alchemical recipes. 196 00:11:28,600 --> 00:11:32,360 Speaker 1: Urine was also used in some methods of making saltpeter, 197 00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:35,520 Speaker 1: and then the saltpeter was used to make gunpowder, so 198 00:11:36,280 --> 00:11:39,280 Speaker 1: part of gunpowder was from urine. With all of those 199 00:11:39,320 --> 00:11:41,319 Speaker 1: things going on, it wasn't really that much of a 200 00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:45,280 Speaker 1: stretch for people to suspect that this strange, potent, seemingly 201 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:50,920 Speaker 1: slightly magical liquid might be yellow because it contained gold. Today, 202 00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:54,000 Speaker 1: though we know that the yellow color mostly comes from 203 00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:56,640 Speaker 1: a substance called ur a bilon, which is one of 204 00:11:56,679 --> 00:11:59,760 Speaker 1: the end products of the bodies breaking down the iron 205 00:11:59,800 --> 00:12:04,120 Speaker 1: can painting molecule. Heam Brand's experiments with urine involved boiling 206 00:12:04,160 --> 00:12:07,000 Speaker 1: it over and over in a vessel called a retort. 207 00:12:07,760 --> 00:12:10,440 Speaker 1: A retort is a spherical vessel with a long, downward 208 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:13,559 Speaker 1: pointing spout. If you heat up something in a retort, 209 00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:16,880 Speaker 1: the vapor rises then condenses in that long spout, so 210 00:12:16,920 --> 00:12:20,280 Speaker 1: you can use it to distill things. One day, as 211 00:12:20,360 --> 00:12:24,040 Speaker 1: Brand was distilling urine and his retort, the fluid dripping 212 00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:27,320 Speaker 1: out of the spout started spontaneously bursting into flame, and 213 00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:30,760 Speaker 1: it also smelled very strongly of garlic. And he found 214 00:12:30,760 --> 00:12:33,120 Speaker 1: if he caught it in a vessel and then stoppard 215 00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:35,880 Speaker 1: the vessel up, it would glow regardless of whether it 216 00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:42,120 Speaker 1: had been exposed to any light. I'm sorry to laugh, Brand. 217 00:12:42,200 --> 00:12:47,679 Speaker 1: It's funny though. It's like my fiery garlic glo pi. 218 00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:51,600 Speaker 1: I don't the thing is very funny. Brand thought that 219 00:12:51,640 --> 00:12:55,160 Speaker 1: he was onto something, perhaps even the philosopher's stone, so 220 00:12:55,200 --> 00:12:59,719 Speaker 1: he kept refining his process, producing this whitish waxy substance 221 00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:02,640 Speaker 1: that was very volatile if exposed to air, and it 222 00:13:02,679 --> 00:13:05,040 Speaker 1: had a bluish glow if it was kept away from air. 223 00:13:05,800 --> 00:13:09,200 Speaker 1: Here is his recipe for making phosphorus, as published in 224 00:13:09,240 --> 00:13:13,680 Speaker 1: Philosophical Experiments and Observations of the late eminent Doctor Robert Hook, 225 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:18,040 Speaker 1: which was published in London in seventy. Since this was 226 00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:21,800 Speaker 1: almost sixty years after Brand's discovery and recorded by a 227 00:13:21,800 --> 00:13:24,920 Speaker 1: different person, it is likely that various steps have been 228 00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:27,800 Speaker 1: changed or added, but this definitely will give you a 229 00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:31,360 Speaker 1: sense of what always involved in this. So under the 230 00:13:31,480 --> 00:13:37,240 Speaker 1: heading phosphorros elementarrus by Dr Brandt of Hamburg, it reads quote, 231 00:13:37,760 --> 00:13:42,000 Speaker 1: take a quantity of urine, not less for one experiment 232 00:13:42,040 --> 00:13:46,360 Speaker 1: than fifty or sixty pales full. Let it lie steeping 233 00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:49,920 Speaker 1: in one or more tubs or an hogshead of oaken 234 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:53,520 Speaker 1: wood until it putrefy and breed worms, as it will 235 00:13:53,559 --> 00:13:57,760 Speaker 1: do in fourteen or fifteen days. Then in a large kettle, 236 00:13:58,200 --> 00:14:01,160 Speaker 1: let some of it boil on a straw fire, and 237 00:14:01,240 --> 00:14:05,320 Speaker 1: as it consumes and evaporates, poor in more and so on, 238 00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:09,120 Speaker 1: till at last the whole quantity be reduced to a paste, 239 00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:12,760 Speaker 1: or rather a hard coal or crust, which it will resemble. 240 00:14:13,200 --> 00:14:15,400 Speaker 1: And this may be done in two or three days, 241 00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:17,839 Speaker 1: if the fire well tended, but else it may be 242 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:23,680 Speaker 1: doing a fortnight or more. So. For one batch of phosphorus, 243 00:14:24,160 --> 00:14:26,800 Speaker 1: brand was leaving urine out in pails for about two 244 00:14:26,800 --> 00:14:30,040 Speaker 1: weeks and then boiling it for between two and fourteen days. 245 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:33,400 Speaker 1: And that is not the end of the process. From 246 00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:36,800 Speaker 1: there you powder the previously made coal or crust, and 247 00:14:36,960 --> 00:14:40,720 Speaker 1: quote add their to some fair water about fifteen fingers 248 00:14:40,800 --> 00:14:43,800 Speaker 1: high or four times as high as the powder, and 249 00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:47,080 Speaker 1: boil them together for one quarter of an hour. Then 250 00:14:47,160 --> 00:14:50,520 Speaker 1: strain the liquor and all through a woolen cloth. That 251 00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:53,560 Speaker 1: which sticks behind may be thrown away, but the liquor 252 00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:56,160 Speaker 1: that passes must be taken and boiled till it come 253 00:14:56,240 --> 00:14:59,560 Speaker 1: to assault, which will be in a few hours. Let's 254 00:14:59,640 --> 00:15:02,720 Speaker 1: rest of peak continues on with adding more ingredients and 255 00:15:02,760 --> 00:15:05,640 Speaker 1: steeping them together until the substance became sort of a 256 00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:09,520 Speaker 1: pap which left behind a red or reddish salt after 257 00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:12,840 Speaker 1: being evaporated in sand. And then that went into a 258 00:15:12,960 --> 00:15:15,920 Speaker 1: retort and quote for the first hour began with a 259 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:19,520 Speaker 1: small fire, more the next, a greater the third, and 260 00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:22,240 Speaker 1: more the fourth, and then continue it as high as 261 00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:26,080 Speaker 1: you can for twenty four hours, sometimes by the force 262 00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:29,120 Speaker 1: of fire twelve hours, proud as enough for when you 263 00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:32,040 Speaker 1: free the recipient white and shining with the fire, and 264 00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:35,120 Speaker 1: there are no more flashes or as it were, blasts 265 00:15:35,160 --> 00:15:37,840 Speaker 1: of wind coming from time to time from the retort, 266 00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:40,520 Speaker 1: then the work is finished, and you may with a 267 00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:43,480 Speaker 1: feather gather the fire together, or scrape it off with 268 00:15:43,520 --> 00:15:46,480 Speaker 1: a knife where it sticks. This recipe goes on to 269 00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:49,960 Speaker 1: stress the need to preserve this fire in an airtight container, 270 00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:51,960 Speaker 1: and how if you put it in the sun it 271 00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:56,760 Speaker 1: might quote kindle gunpowder. I think that might just mean explode. 272 00:16:01,120 --> 00:16:05,040 Speaker 1: Uh this This recipe also contains a cautionary tale quote. 273 00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:07,800 Speaker 1: My author says he had once wrapped a knob in 274 00:16:07,920 --> 00:16:10,800 Speaker 1: wax at Hanover, and being in his pocket, and he 275 00:16:11,040 --> 00:16:13,960 Speaker 1: busy near the fire, the very heat of it let 276 00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:17,680 Speaker 1: in flame and burned all his clothes and his fingers also, 277 00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:20,320 Speaker 1: for though he rubbed them in the dirt, nothing would 278 00:16:20,360 --> 00:16:23,320 Speaker 1: quench it unless he had water. He was ill for 279 00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:26,640 Speaker 1: fifteen days and the skin came off, So don't do that. 280 00:16:28,960 --> 00:16:31,720 Speaker 1: We should note that it's possible that Paracelsus used a 281 00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:35,480 Speaker 1: similar process to produce phosphorus. In the sixteenth century, more 282 00:16:35,520 --> 00:16:39,200 Speaker 1: than a hundred years before Brand's discovery, he wrote about 283 00:16:39,200 --> 00:16:42,320 Speaker 1: a process for repeatedly distilling urine, which would cause what 284 00:16:42,440 --> 00:16:45,920 Speaker 1: he described as the earth, air, and water to rise 285 00:16:46,080 --> 00:16:48,760 Speaker 1: while the fire fell out of it. After doing this 286 00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:52,680 Speaker 1: several times, he said there would be quote congealed certain icicles, 287 00:16:52,760 --> 00:16:56,400 Speaker 1: which are the element of fire. That sounds close enough 288 00:16:56,440 --> 00:16:59,000 Speaker 1: to what Brand was doing that these icicles could have 289 00:16:59,080 --> 00:17:01,920 Speaker 1: been phosphorus. But it we also really don't know. It 290 00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:07,160 Speaker 1: just merits mentioning as a potential comparative. Paracelsus has been 291 00:17:07,200 --> 00:17:10,720 Speaker 1: on my episode list for a very long time, long 292 00:17:10,880 --> 00:17:13,320 Speaker 1: enough that I was getting ready to do it, and 293 00:17:13,320 --> 00:17:15,159 Speaker 1: then saw Bones did it, and I didn't want to 294 00:17:15,160 --> 00:17:17,480 Speaker 1: feel like I was copying saw Bones, even though not 295 00:17:17,560 --> 00:17:20,400 Speaker 1: everybody listens to both shows. But now it's been long enough, 296 00:17:21,520 --> 00:17:25,280 Speaker 1: maybe he will keep farther up the list. There are 297 00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:28,760 Speaker 1: also other accounts that describe Brand's process a little differently 298 00:17:28,800 --> 00:17:31,280 Speaker 1: than that recipe that we just went through, and in 299 00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:33,879 Speaker 1: one of them, the salts that are produced after the 300 00:17:33,880 --> 00:17:37,439 Speaker 1: first round of distilling the urine are discarded. That is 301 00:17:37,480 --> 00:17:40,000 Speaker 1: actually where most of the phosphorus would have been at 302 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:42,200 Speaker 1: that point in the process, So if Brand was doing 303 00:17:42,200 --> 00:17:44,120 Speaker 1: it that way, he would have been throwing away most 304 00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:47,440 Speaker 1: of what he was trying to get. Regardless, though this 305 00:17:47,520 --> 00:17:52,480 Speaker 1: was a long, involved, complicated, and frankly gross process. A 306 00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:56,040 Speaker 1: seventeen sixty seven Dictionary of Chemistry described it as more 307 00:17:56,119 --> 00:18:00,880 Speaker 1: curious than useful, along with being quote both costly and embarrassing. 308 00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:05,800 Speaker 1: But Brand was very fond of his costly, embarrassing discovery. 309 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:09,359 Speaker 1: He named it cold fire, or sometimes just my fire. 310 00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:12,160 Speaker 1: It's not clear who was the first person to call 311 00:18:12,200 --> 00:18:15,720 Speaker 1: it phosphorus, which is from Latin words that mean bringer 312 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:19,520 Speaker 1: of light or light bringer. That same term has also 313 00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:23,280 Speaker 1: been used to describe a variety of other glowing substances. 314 00:18:24,080 --> 00:18:28,000 Speaker 1: Brand kept his discovery secret for about six years, and 315 00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:30,439 Speaker 1: we'll get to what happened when knowledge spread about it. 316 00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:41,040 Speaker 1: After we first have a little sponsor break. Henning Brand's 317 00:18:41,040 --> 00:18:45,040 Speaker 1: discovery became public knowledge through a murky series of events 318 00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:50,200 Speaker 1: involving two other men named Johan Kuncle and Johan Daniel Kraft, who, 319 00:18:50,280 --> 00:18:52,320 Speaker 1: like a lot of other people in the story, worked 320 00:18:52,320 --> 00:18:56,600 Speaker 1: in both chemistry and alchemy. It seems as though Kuncle 321 00:18:56,720 --> 00:18:59,199 Speaker 1: had a piece of Bologna stone, and this was a 322 00:18:59,280 --> 00:19:01,920 Speaker 1: rock that was for described in sixteen oh three by 323 00:19:02,040 --> 00:19:07,080 Speaker 1: Vincenzo Cascarolo, and this stone glowed in the dark. Cascarolo 324 00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:09,760 Speaker 1: was a shoemaker, and like so many other people, he 325 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:13,040 Speaker 1: was hoping to find gold. He had collected a bunch 326 00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:15,200 Speaker 1: of interesting rocks from the mountains near his home in 327 00:19:15,280 --> 00:19:18,159 Speaker 1: Bologna and what is now Italy, and he discovered that 328 00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:20,040 Speaker 1: if you baked them and then left them out in 329 00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:23,399 Speaker 1: the sun, they would glow in the dark. Bologna Stone 330 00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:26,680 Speaker 1: became a curiosity and a source of fascination as people 331 00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:29,320 Speaker 1: wondered whether there was something magical about it and whether 332 00:19:29,359 --> 00:19:31,800 Speaker 1: it might have something to do with the Philosopher's Stone. 333 00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:36,119 Speaker 1: Galileo described it this way in sixteen twelve quote, it 334 00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:38,800 Speaker 1: must be explained how it happens that the light is 335 00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:42,119 Speaker 1: conceived into the stone and is given back after some time. 336 00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:46,359 Speaker 1: As in Childbirth today we know that Bologna stone was 337 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:49,560 Speaker 1: in fact Baryam sulfide. I love how so many elements 338 00:19:49,600 --> 00:19:51,960 Speaker 1: of this story. You're like, what if I baked some rocks? 339 00:19:52,960 --> 00:19:57,120 Speaker 1: What if I had distilled p over and over. So 340 00:19:57,280 --> 00:20:00,560 Speaker 1: Kuncle was intrigued not only by Bologna's owned, but also 341 00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:03,720 Speaker 1: by all kinds of other luminescent substances. And so when 342 00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:07,000 Speaker 1: he heard that somebody in Hamburg had created something that 343 00:20:07,040 --> 00:20:10,600 Speaker 1: glowed indefinitely, he got really excited, and he wrote a 344 00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:13,320 Speaker 1: letter to Craft about going to Hamburg to see what 345 00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:15,960 Speaker 1: this was all about. In some versions of the story, 346 00:20:16,119 --> 00:20:19,080 Speaker 1: Kunkle and Craft went together and Brand taught them both 347 00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:21,960 Speaker 1: how to make phosphorus after Craft paid him to do it. 348 00:20:22,520 --> 00:20:24,960 Speaker 1: But in other versions of the story, Craft swooped in 349 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:27,840 Speaker 1: ahead of Kunkle and paid Brand not only to show 350 00:20:27,960 --> 00:20:30,560 Speaker 1: him how to make phosphorus, but also to keep that 351 00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:34,640 Speaker 1: information from Craft. Yeah, then that version of the Storycraft 352 00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:37,080 Speaker 1: had to work it out for himself, And regardless of 353 00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:40,080 Speaker 1: which of these is more accurate, both Kuncle and Craft 354 00:20:40,119 --> 00:20:43,640 Speaker 1: did wind up knowing how to make phosphorus. Craft started 355 00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:47,280 Speaker 1: traveling around Europe with phosphorus and other glowing substances, and 356 00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:51,320 Speaker 1: he did experiments with them before nobles and dignitaries. This 357 00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:55,720 Speaker 1: included Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke Collector of Brandenburg, Prussia, on April 358 00:20:56,560 --> 00:20:59,679 Speaker 1: sixteen seventy six, and then a year later crafted the 359 00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:02,800 Speaker 1: same him at the court of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Brunswick, 360 00:21:02,880 --> 00:21:08,879 Speaker 1: Luneburg and Hanover. Kraft's friend Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, was, among 361 00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:13,119 Speaker 1: other things, the Duke's librarian, and Leibnitz suggested that maybe 362 00:21:13,119 --> 00:21:15,960 Speaker 1: phosphorus could be used to light a whole room, but 363 00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:18,359 Speaker 1: Kraft said production of that much of it would be 364 00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:22,200 Speaker 1: just way too difficult. Even so, the Duke became intrigued 365 00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:25,480 Speaker 1: with the idea of setting up a mass production facility 366 00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:28,480 Speaker 1: out in the Hearts Mountains, presumably so the smell of 367 00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:32,520 Speaker 1: it wouldn't bother people. Leibnitz negotiated with brand to come 368 00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:34,920 Speaker 1: to Hanover to work on the project, and he recruited 369 00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:39,440 Speaker 1: a workforce and started stockpiling lots of firewood and barrels 370 00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:43,160 Speaker 1: full of urine. It's not a hundred percent clear where 371 00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:45,639 Speaker 1: all of this urine came from, and these stories like 372 00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:49,720 Speaker 1: there's one account that says that Brand had a relationship 373 00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:53,000 Speaker 1: with a tavern keeper or a brewer or some other 374 00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:56,800 Speaker 1: person who would have a clientele that pete a lot 375 00:21:56,840 --> 00:22:05,119 Speaker 1: but a little vague. Meanwhile, Gustav Adolf, the Duke of 376 00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:09,280 Speaker 1: Mecklenburg Gustrau, also heard about phosphorus and decided that he 377 00:22:09,359 --> 00:22:13,000 Speaker 1: also wanted to start a phosphorus factory as well, and 378 00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:17,520 Speaker 1: this Deuce representative Johad Waki Betcher started trying to recruit 379 00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:20,880 Speaker 1: Brand away from Hanover. It seems as though Brand tried 380 00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:24,920 Speaker 1: to use Betcher's offer to negotiate for more money from Hanover, 381 00:22:25,040 --> 00:22:28,000 Speaker 1: but he wasn't really savvy enough to do this, and 382 00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:30,800 Speaker 1: instead he just came off as kind of cranky and obstinate. 383 00:22:31,359 --> 00:22:33,359 Speaker 1: And in the middle of all of this, Kraft started 384 00:22:33,359 --> 00:22:36,600 Speaker 1: writing to Hanover as well, suggesting that he might actually 385 00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:39,639 Speaker 1: be a better manager than Brand for this whole phosphorus 386 00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:44,000 Speaker 1: production project. Leibnitz persuaded the Duke to keep working with Brand, 387 00:22:44,040 --> 00:22:46,600 Speaker 1: and it appears that during all of this Brand did 388 00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:51,680 Speaker 1: finally document his methods for making phosphorus. He apparently ran 389 00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:55,480 Speaker 1: a mass production facility out in the mountains for a 390 00:22:55,520 --> 00:22:59,480 Speaker 1: few months, then in the late sixteen seventies, phosphorus and 391 00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:03,000 Speaker 1: the knowledge of how to make it reached England. Robert Boyle, 392 00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:05,560 Speaker 1: who was one of the founders of modern chemistry, heard 393 00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:09,640 Speaker 1: about brands production of phosphorus from urine, and he independently 394 00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:11,440 Speaker 1: worked out his own way to do the same thing. 395 00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:15,119 Speaker 1: About ten years later. Boyle then worked to establish a 396 00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:20,000 Speaker 1: phosphorus production facility in London. As phosphorus became more available, 397 00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:23,960 Speaker 1: demand for its skyrocketed. It went from being a curiosity 398 00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:26,440 Speaker 1: that people thought may or may not be the philosopher's 399 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:30,320 Speaker 1: stone to something that had, at least in theory practical uses. 400 00:23:31,160 --> 00:23:34,400 Speaker 1: Johan Kunkel figured out how to cast phosphorus into molds 401 00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:37,520 Speaker 1: underwater and wrote a treatise on the use of phosphorus 402 00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:41,280 Speaker 1: in medicine called Treatise of the Phosphorus Mirabilius and its 403 00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:45,880 Speaker 1: Wonderful Shining Pills. Soon, phosphorus was being marketed as a cure, 404 00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:49,600 Speaker 1: all prepared in a variety of pills and oils and lineaments. 405 00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:59,480 Speaker 1: It was recommended for alcoholism, apoplexy, asthma, cataracts, cholera, colic depression, epilepsy, fever, glaucoma, gout, impotence, migraines, paralysis, 406 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:03,520 Speaker 1: scrawfiel a, tennis, toothaches, and tuberculosis, and that is only 407 00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:06,800 Speaker 1: to name a few. Although phosphates have some medical uses, 408 00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:09,280 Speaker 1: pure phosphorus does not treat any of these things, and 409 00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:11,639 Speaker 1: is in fact highly toxic and can be used as 410 00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:15,680 Speaker 1: a poison. Henning Brand died around seen and about thirty 411 00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:20,360 Speaker 1: years later Andrea's Sigismund monograph discovered phosphorus in edible seeds. 412 00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:24,000 Speaker 1: He concluded that people were consuming phosphorus in their food 413 00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:27,080 Speaker 1: and then excreting it in their urine, and this was 414 00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:30,520 Speaker 1: the first step in the scientific communities understanding of phosphorus 415 00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:33,199 Speaker 1: as a chemical element and of its movement through the 416 00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:36,439 Speaker 1: world in the phosphorus cycle. This is a cycle that 417 00:24:36,520 --> 00:24:39,840 Speaker 1: begins with phosphate rich rock and moves through water and 418 00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:43,320 Speaker 1: soil into plants and animals, then back into the water 419 00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:46,720 Speaker 1: and soil, and then into sedimentary rock. By the early 420 00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:51,520 Speaker 1: nineteenth century, phosphorus was seeing large scale industrial production thanks 421 00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:55,159 Speaker 1: to the discovery that it could be extracted from bone ash, 422 00:24:55,760 --> 00:24:59,280 Speaker 1: most notably white phosphorus was used to make matches, which 423 00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:01,120 Speaker 1: is something that we talked at about in a prior 424 00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:04,919 Speaker 1: episode on the London match Girls Strike. White phosphorus was 425 00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:08,280 Speaker 1: really dangerous though it caused a serious medical condition known 426 00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:11,920 Speaker 1: as Fossey jaw, and in eighteen forty nine, red phosphorus 427 00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:16,040 Speaker 1: was introduced as a less dangerous substitute. By eighteen fifty one, 428 00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:20,840 Speaker 1: phosphorus was seeing more practical uses, including in manufactured fertilizers. 429 00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:24,120 Speaker 1: This actually led to a supply and demand problem, which 430 00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:27,400 Speaker 1: led people to look for new sources of phosphorus. One 431 00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:31,880 Speaker 1: of these was guano. Guano itself is rich in phosphates, nitrogen, 432 00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:36,240 Speaker 1: and potassium, making it an excellent fertilizer. The sedimentary rocks 433 00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:38,840 Speaker 1: that form in places with lots of guano are also 434 00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:42,119 Speaker 1: rich in phosphates, and this led to a land graund 435 00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:45,679 Speaker 1: for islands and caves with lots of guano. In eighteen 436 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:48,880 Speaker 1: fifty six, U S Congress past the Guano Islands Act, 437 00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:52,320 Speaker 1: which allowed the United States to claim uninhabited islands to 438 00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:55,840 Speaker 1: mine the guano on them. They were uninhabited by people, 439 00:25:55,960 --> 00:25:59,320 Speaker 1: They were inhabited by lots and lots of birds. Today, 440 00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:03,440 Speaker 1: the vast majority of phosphorus is mined from rocks that 441 00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:06,960 Speaker 1: are rich and calcium phosphate, and about nine of that 442 00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:09,520 Speaker 1: mind phosphorus is put to one use and that is 443 00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:13,600 Speaker 1: back to fertilizer. Phosphorus is still used for other applications 444 00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:18,679 Speaker 1: as well, including plastics, fuel additives, fireworks, rat poison, and 445 00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:21,199 Speaker 1: of course it is still used to make matches. It 446 00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:24,159 Speaker 1: used to be in a lot of detergents because, like 447 00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:27,000 Speaker 1: we said earlier, it helps detergents clean better. But too 448 00:26:27,119 --> 00:26:30,760 Speaker 1: much phosphate and bodies of water leads to algae overgrowths, 449 00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:33,000 Speaker 1: and so a lot of nations to be either banned 450 00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:37,440 Speaker 1: or strictly limited the use of phosphates and detergent. Phosphorus 451 00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:41,199 Speaker 1: is also used in weapons, including organophosphates which are chemical 452 00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:44,680 Speaker 1: weapons known as nerve gas, as well as incendiary devices 453 00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:49,560 Speaker 1: and smoke screens. Ironically, Hamburg, where phosphorus was discovered, was 454 00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:53,840 Speaker 1: hit with thousands of phosphorus containing incendiary bombs during Operation 455 00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:57,000 Speaker 1: Gomera in World War Two. Yeah, the use of phosphorus 456 00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:01,600 Speaker 1: and weapons is pretty controversial today, but it's still is used. 457 00:27:02,600 --> 00:27:06,240 Speaker 1: Phosphate rock is not a renewable resource. Even though the 458 00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:11,320 Speaker 1: phosphate cycle does eventually put phosphates back into rocks, it 459 00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:14,479 Speaker 1: takes a really long time, and over the past few 460 00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:17,240 Speaker 1: years there has been some discussion about whether the world 461 00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:21,280 Speaker 1: is running out of phosphorus. Phosphorus itself is not in 462 00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:24,200 Speaker 1: very short supply. It's one of the most common elements 463 00:27:24,280 --> 00:27:26,919 Speaker 1: on the planet, but there's not that much of it 464 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:30,680 Speaker 1: that can be mined without huge environmental damage. Like there's 465 00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:34,560 Speaker 1: a lot of phosphorus everywhere, but only a very few 466 00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:37,679 Speaker 1: places with phosphorus and a high enough concentration to be 467 00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:42,000 Speaker 1: able to efficiently mine it. It's not totally clear exactly 468 00:27:42,040 --> 00:27:44,720 Speaker 1: how much available phosphate there is in rocks that can 469 00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:48,720 Speaker 1: reasonably be mined, or when we might reach peak phosphorus. 470 00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:53,480 Speaker 1: Predictions run anywhere from decades to centuries. Because the vast 471 00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:56,560 Speaker 1: majority of phosphorus is used as fertilizer for plants that 472 00:27:56,600 --> 00:28:00,640 Speaker 1: directly or indirectly become food, this shortage has the potential 473 00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:03,480 Speaker 1: to be a global catastrophe, and one of the proposed 474 00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:06,960 Speaker 1: alternatives is urine recycling or all the way back to 475 00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:16,840 Speaker 1: just boiling some urine until the exploding. I'm glad I 476 00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:19,280 Speaker 1: got this whole Handig brand thing out of my system 477 00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:21,720 Speaker 1: after like three years of saying I should do a 478 00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:25,119 Speaker 1: podcast on that guy and his weird urine boiling. Do 479 00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:27,080 Speaker 1: you have a little bit of listener mail that may 480 00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:30,680 Speaker 1: or may not include bodily fluids. It doesn't can include 481 00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:34,640 Speaker 1: any any bodily fluids. It's from Heather. Heather says, I'm 482 00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:37,719 Speaker 1: delighted to add another topic to the list of places 483 00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:40,680 Speaker 1: my podcast has intersected with miss in history. It's one 484 00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:44,000 Speaker 1: of the reasons I follow you loyally. Uh. This is 485 00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:47,080 Speaker 1: in reference to the Sappho episode, and Heather says, I 486 00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:50,200 Speaker 1: wish you had noted with regard to Higginson's translation of 487 00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:53,480 Speaker 1: the ode Aphrodite that, like many male translators, he silently 488 00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:57,400 Speaker 1: changed Sappho's unambiguously female pronouns for male ones in reference 489 00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:00,280 Speaker 1: to the one who flees, refuses gifts, and else to 490 00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:04,080 Speaker 1: love Sappho. The program gave the impression that the association 491 00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:06,760 Speaker 1: of Sappho with love between women is entirely a later 492 00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:09,560 Speaker 1: invention with little basis in her own work. But in 493 00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:12,600 Speaker 1: this the most complete poem we have of her, Aphrodite 494 00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:16,560 Speaker 1: promises Sappho that her female beloved will return her love. Heather, 495 00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:20,680 Speaker 1: who is The podcast referenced earlier in the letter is 496 00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:24,760 Speaker 1: the Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast. Thank you for this note, Heather. 497 00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:28,640 Speaker 1: I read a bunch of translations of Ode to Aphrodite 498 00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:31,400 Speaker 1: to try to get one for that episode that seemed 499 00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:35,640 Speaker 1: accessible to people who didn't, necessarily, UM, have a huge 500 00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:39,880 Speaker 1: love of poetry or a lot of background knowledge to 501 00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:44,000 Speaker 1: make the writing makes sense. And all of them translated 502 00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:46,360 Speaker 1: it that way. So I was not aware that this 503 00:29:46,600 --> 00:29:49,440 Speaker 1: uh that the pronouns and it had been changed, But 504 00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:52,200 Speaker 1: I did want to clarify since UM, I'm not sure 505 00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:54,720 Speaker 1: how we gave that impression, because some of the other 506 00:29:54,760 --> 00:29:57,960 Speaker 1: work that we read in the episode was the opposite. UM. 507 00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:02,640 Speaker 1: What we talked more about is that the stigma against 508 00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:08,640 Speaker 1: same sex relationships was really a later part of the 509 00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:10,840 Speaker 1: response to her work, not that that was something that 510 00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:12,920 Speaker 1: wasn't in her work from the beginning. So just in 511 00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:14,840 Speaker 1: case other people came away from the episode with the 512 00:30:14,840 --> 00:30:20,800 Speaker 1: impression that, UM, there was no like attraction or affection 513 00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:23,440 Speaker 1: between women and Sappho's work like that, I would not 514 00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:25,640 Speaker 1: describe it that way at all, UM, And I think 515 00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:28,760 Speaker 1: the other poem that we read that was a lengthier 516 00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:32,440 Speaker 1: chunk was an example of that. UM. So thank you again, 517 00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:35,200 Speaker 1: Heather for that note. If you would like to write 518 00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:37,400 Speaker 1: to us about this or any other podcast for a 519 00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:39,720 Speaker 1: history podcast that how Stuff Works dot com. 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