1 00:00:02,320 --> 00:00:06,479 Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, Here is an episode from our ten episode 2 00:00:06,519 --> 00:00:10,119 Speaker 1: playlist that we're calling Offbeat History. Yeah, we're adding this 3 00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:13,680 Speaker 1: to our our regular publishing schedule as one kind of 4 00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:17,279 Speaker 1: big drop all at the same time on March nineteen. 5 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:19,599 Speaker 1: And that is so that you have maybe have a 6 00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:23,160 Speaker 1: little bit of extra entertainment options available to you, particularly 7 00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:29,840 Speaker 1: if you are self quarantined or sheltering in place. Welcome 8 00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:32,600 Speaker 1: to Stuff you missed in History Class a production of 9 00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:41,879 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 10 00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:45,480 Speaker 1: Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Every year, there's 11 00:00:45,479 --> 00:00:49,600 Speaker 1: a thing in Cambridge, Massachusetts called bo Fest. It's held 12 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:51,800 Speaker 1: in other places too, but the wedding Cambridge on the 13 00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:53,519 Speaker 1: M I. T Campus is the one that I go to. 14 00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:58,000 Speaker 1: It's the Festival of bad ad hoc Hypotheses. It's a 15 00:00:58,040 --> 00:01:02,400 Speaker 1: place where people present their scientific papers, except the scientific 16 00:01:02,440 --> 00:01:07,200 Speaker 1: papers are fake and also funny and very rare, well 17 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:11,039 Speaker 1: argued and sometimes really plausible on top of being so hilarious. 18 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:14,880 Speaker 1: So like, for example, last time, the winning talk was 19 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:17,800 Speaker 1: all about the role of noise in the spread of 20 00:01:17,880 --> 00:01:20,640 Speaker 1: bubonic plague in the fourteenth century, and it was accompanied 21 00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:23,200 Speaker 1: by a whole lot of pictures from illuminated manuscripts, and 22 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:25,000 Speaker 1: I don't want to get into more detailed than that, 23 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:28,080 Speaker 1: because they put videos of all these things online and 24 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:29,800 Speaker 1: I want anybody who goes to watch it to see 25 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:34,200 Speaker 1: all the hilarious reveals firsthand. It is often a very 26 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:40,919 Speaker 1: cool blending of science and history and fakery and hilarity altogether. 27 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:43,319 Speaker 1: And the reason I'm talking about this is that the 28 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:46,440 Speaker 1: winners of this very silly, nerdy thing used to get 29 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:50,480 Speaker 1: a three D printed representation of Darwin looking doubtful, but 30 00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:55,160 Speaker 1: now they get a trophy of hennig Brand discovering phosphorus. 31 00:01:56,080 --> 00:02:01,280 Speaker 1: Hennig Brand discovered phosphorus by boiling p So the first 32 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:04,640 Speaker 1: time I heard about this at bo Fest, I was like, 33 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:06,720 Speaker 1: we gotta do a podcast on that. It has has 34 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:09,320 Speaker 1: taken me a few years to actually get to it. 35 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:12,040 Speaker 1: In case it was not clear, this episode is going 36 00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:19,560 Speaker 1: to have a lot of your Internet hooray. I love 37 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:22,240 Speaker 1: a p joke. They're very funny to me because I'm crass. 38 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:25,800 Speaker 1: One of my cousins has a daughter who's just at 39 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:28,640 Speaker 1: the age to be having sleepovers and and at the 40 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:33,160 Speaker 1: age where mentioning of any bodily function is just instantly hilarious. 41 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:36,720 Speaker 1: And I like remember as a kid, if somebody was 42 00:02:36,760 --> 00:02:41,160 Speaker 1: like p P, it would just send everyone into giggles forever. Yeah, 43 00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:42,959 Speaker 1: it was very different as a child, you know, I 44 00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:45,600 Speaker 1: was raised with a lot of shame about your body 45 00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:48,600 Speaker 1: and anything it might do or pretty. It wasn't until 46 00:02:49,120 --> 00:02:51,160 Speaker 1: I became a little bit older and out in the 47 00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:53,679 Speaker 1: world where I was like, you, guys, urine is really funny. 48 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:56,720 Speaker 1: But as a child, if you said something about pe 49 00:02:56,919 --> 00:03:01,639 Speaker 1: to sleepover, there would be mortification and like, oh, it's 50 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:04,760 Speaker 1: a very different culture. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, a little 51 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:08,800 Speaker 1: Victorian at my house in that regard. Um to the 52 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:12,200 Speaker 1: matter in hand, phosphorus is a chemical element, and if 53 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:15,280 Speaker 1: you need a quick chemistry refresher, elements are a basic 54 00:03:15,320 --> 00:03:18,639 Speaker 1: building block of matter, and elements are made of atoms, 55 00:03:18,639 --> 00:03:21,760 Speaker 1: and atoms are made of subatomic particles, but you cannot 56 00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:25,440 Speaker 1: take those subatomic particles out of an atom by ordinary 57 00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:29,480 Speaker 1: chemical means. A pure piece of an element like phosphorus 58 00:03:29,639 --> 00:03:33,400 Speaker 1: is made of phosphorus atoms, and one atom of phosphorus 59 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:37,160 Speaker 1: is the smallest piece of phosphorus that you can get. Yeah, 60 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:42,000 Speaker 1: I'll take one phosphorus please. When I wrote that, I 61 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:45,800 Speaker 1: made it almost sound like all elements are made of phosphorus. 62 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:48,760 Speaker 1: That's not It's that all elements are made of atoms 63 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:52,360 Speaker 1: of that type of element, and so several chemical elements 64 00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:55,520 Speaker 1: were known to the ancient world. You'll see slightly different 65 00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:58,360 Speaker 1: lists depending on where you look, but in general, humans 66 00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:05,160 Speaker 1: have known about gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, zinc, arsenic, antimony, mercury, sulfur, 67 00:04:05,240 --> 00:04:08,320 Speaker 1: and carbon for thousands of years. Pretty much any ancient 68 00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:11,320 Speaker 1: culture that has written records names at least some of 69 00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:14,520 Speaker 1: these in those records. These elements have all been known 70 00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:16,960 Speaker 1: about for so long that we could not really say 71 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:20,680 Speaker 1: who discovered them or who first concluded that there was 72 00:04:20,680 --> 00:04:24,400 Speaker 1: anything special about them. Phosphorus, on the other hand, is 73 00:04:24,440 --> 00:04:27,640 Speaker 1: the first element who's discoverer we can name, and that 74 00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:31,360 Speaker 1: was hennig Brand in about sixteen sixty nine. But unlike 75 00:04:31,400 --> 00:04:35,040 Speaker 1: most of the other elements we just listed, phosphorus doesn't 76 00:04:35,040 --> 00:04:38,719 Speaker 1: exist in its pure elemental form out in the natural world. 77 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:43,360 Speaker 1: It's extremely reactive, so instead it's found in phosphate compounds. 78 00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:47,279 Speaker 1: Those compounds are used to produce elemental phosphorus, which is 79 00:04:47,279 --> 00:04:51,599 Speaker 1: called white or yellow phosphorus. White phosphorus can then be 80 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:55,520 Speaker 1: used to make more stable allotropes, including red and black phosphorus. 81 00:04:56,160 --> 00:04:59,840 Speaker 1: In casual use, the words phosphorus and phosphates are used 82 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:03,240 Speaker 1: almost interchangeably, sort of like how people say carbon to 83 00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:07,919 Speaker 1: mean carbon dioxide. Phosphates are fundamentally necessary to life on Earth. 84 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:11,320 Speaker 1: They're part of the structure of DNA and RNA. They're 85 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:14,360 Speaker 1: also a component and a denizine triphosphate or a t P, 86 00:05:14,880 --> 00:05:19,839 Speaker 1: which carries energy within all living cells. Calcium Phosphate helps 87 00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:22,880 Speaker 1: provide the strength in our bones and teeth, so I mean, 88 00:05:22,920 --> 00:05:25,080 Speaker 1: it's just not an exaggeration to say that we would 89 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:30,599 Speaker 1: be dead without phosphorus. Are very squishy. People have also 90 00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:34,960 Speaker 1: been intentionally using phosphorus for thousands of years before Brand 91 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:38,320 Speaker 1: discovered it, without knowing that that was what they were doing. 92 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:41,320 Speaker 1: In some parts of the world, the soil doesn't contain 93 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:43,640 Speaker 1: a lot of phosphorus, and even in places where the 94 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:47,279 Speaker 1: soil starts out phosphate rich, it loses its phosphates and 95 00:05:47,320 --> 00:05:50,960 Speaker 1: other nutrients over time through farming. For as long as 96 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:55,200 Speaker 1: people have deliberately cultivated crops, they've also understood that there 97 00:05:55,279 --> 00:05:57,960 Speaker 1: was something about the soil that needed to be replenished 98 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:00,520 Speaker 1: in order for crops to continue to throw. I've there 99 00:06:01,279 --> 00:06:03,320 Speaker 1: a lot of the strategies people have used to try 100 00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:07,000 Speaker 1: to make their crops grow better have really been adding phosphorus, 101 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:10,760 Speaker 1: along with the other essential nutrients of nitrogen and potassium, 102 00:06:10,800 --> 00:06:14,719 Speaker 1: back into the soil. As examples, the practice of burning 103 00:06:14,800 --> 00:06:17,799 Speaker 1: off the stubble of last year's crop doesn't just clear 104 00:06:17,839 --> 00:06:21,560 Speaker 1: the land for new planting. The ash also contains phosphorus, 105 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:24,920 Speaker 1: which goes back into the soil. People have also fertilized 106 00:06:24,920 --> 00:06:28,960 Speaker 1: their crops with things like manure, urine, fish, and oyster shells, 107 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:33,080 Speaker 1: all of which contained phosphorus and other nutrients. Crop rotation 108 00:06:33,240 --> 00:06:38,480 Speaker 1: takes advantage of the differences and how different plants use nitrogen, potassium, 109 00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:40,880 Speaker 1: and phosphorus to try to keep all three of those 110 00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:44,360 Speaker 1: readily available in the soil. People did things like this 111 00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:48,279 Speaker 1: for centuries without knowing what phosphorus was or that the 112 00:06:48,279 --> 00:06:51,400 Speaker 1: crops that they were growing needed it. Ancient people's use 113 00:06:51,440 --> 00:06:55,520 Speaker 1: of phosphorus also wasn't limited to agriculture. As one example, 114 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:58,320 Speaker 1: for thousands of years, people have used stale urine to 115 00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:01,800 Speaker 1: clean things. A big reason for this is that urine 116 00:07:01,839 --> 00:07:05,520 Speaker 1: contains urea, which decays into ammonia. When it's left out 117 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:08,560 Speaker 1: for a long time but you're in also contains a 118 00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:11,960 Speaker 1: lot of phosphates, and phosphates helped make other cleaning agents 119 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:15,840 Speaker 1: more efficient. Please don't take this as any sort of 120 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:23,680 Speaker 1: household cleaning tip. When we were in San Francisco at 121 00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:26,800 Speaker 1: the at the end of our tour last year, I 122 00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:31,600 Speaker 1: went to the book Binder's Museum and uh that that 123 00:07:31,720 --> 00:07:34,120 Speaker 1: I had a guided tour of the book Binder's Museum, 124 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:35,800 Speaker 1: and one of the things that I learned about is 125 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:38,880 Speaker 1: how in one element or one part of the book 126 00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:43,400 Speaker 1: binding printing process, there were these little inc daubers that 127 00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:45,800 Speaker 1: were sort of leather covered things that you would doub 128 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:46,920 Speaker 1: at the ink and you would put that on the 129 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:50,559 Speaker 1: plate that you were going to print, and uh, if 130 00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:53,600 Speaker 1: that dried out, your apprentice had to go and clean 131 00:07:53,680 --> 00:07:56,080 Speaker 1: them and start completely over. So part of the apprentice's 132 00:07:56,160 --> 00:07:59,640 Speaker 1: job was to keep that nice and moist. And the 133 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:02,240 Speaker 1: tour guide said, do you have any ideas of what 134 00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:04,200 Speaker 1: they might have used to clean these things? And I 135 00:08:04,240 --> 00:08:06,840 Speaker 1: was like, I bet it's urine, because that was the 136 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:10,480 Speaker 1: thing that I could think of. It would be you know, 137 00:08:10,680 --> 00:08:14,320 Speaker 1: in the early days of book binding, would probably used 138 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:17,680 Speaker 1: to be clean to clean something, and she's specified that 139 00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:20,760 Speaker 1: it was stale urine, and that is for the reason 140 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:25,280 Speaker 1: that we just said. So. Of course, when Hennigbrand was alive, 141 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:28,160 Speaker 1: people did not know what phosphorus was or that it 142 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:30,280 Speaker 1: was connected to all of this, and even after he 143 00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:34,040 Speaker 1: made his discovery, people didn't really understand what it was 144 00:08:34,120 --> 00:08:38,880 Speaker 1: he had found. At the time, European scientists still understood 145 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:42,280 Speaker 1: the world in terms of not the chemical elements that 146 00:08:42,360 --> 00:08:46,040 Speaker 1: we think about today, but the four elements of earth, air, fire, 147 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:49,920 Speaker 1: and water. The field of alchemy was just starting to 148 00:08:50,040 --> 00:08:52,760 Speaker 1: evolve into the field of chemistry when he lived, and 149 00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:57,200 Speaker 1: the definition of elements was just starting to evolve from 150 00:08:57,200 --> 00:09:01,280 Speaker 1: those four elements into more like today is definition. And 151 00:09:01,360 --> 00:09:04,200 Speaker 1: there's more about the shift from alchemy to chemistry in 152 00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:07,400 Speaker 1: our most recent Saturday classic, but as it relates to 153 00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:10,640 Speaker 1: hennig Brand. By the sixteen sixties, there were still a 154 00:09:10,679 --> 00:09:14,360 Speaker 1: few alchemists searching for the fabled Philosopher's Stone, which was 155 00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:17,400 Speaker 1: believed to turn base metals into gold and produce an 156 00:09:17,400 --> 00:09:21,160 Speaker 1: elixir that could cure diseases in prolonged life, and Brand 157 00:09:21,320 --> 00:09:24,600 Speaker 1: was one of them. Hennig Brand's discovery of phosphorus came 158 00:09:24,640 --> 00:09:27,680 Speaker 1: about because he thought the secret to the Philosopher's Stone 159 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:31,440 Speaker 1: might be found in urine, and we'll get to why 160 00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:34,120 Speaker 1: he thought that on how he made his discovery after 161 00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:44,520 Speaker 1: a sponsor break. We do not know all that much 162 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:48,240 Speaker 1: about Hennig Brand as a person. Sometimes his name is 163 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:52,480 Speaker 1: spelled Henning instead of Hennig. Sometimes his last name is 164 00:09:52,559 --> 00:09:54,920 Speaker 1: b R a n T or b r a n 165 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:58,240 Speaker 1: d T instead of b R a n d. He 166 00:09:58,360 --> 00:10:01,600 Speaker 1: was probably born in Hamburg and what's now Germany sometime 167 00:10:01,640 --> 00:10:04,679 Speaker 1: around sixteen thirty. He seems to have spent some time 168 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:07,880 Speaker 1: as a low level army officer during the Thirty Years War, 169 00:10:08,520 --> 00:10:10,520 Speaker 1: and that suggests that he was from a middle class 170 00:10:10,559 --> 00:10:13,240 Speaker 1: family because he was an officer, so probably they were 171 00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:16,040 Speaker 1: not very poor, but also he was not of a 172 00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:19,640 Speaker 1: very high rank, so they probably weren't all that prominent either. 173 00:10:20,080 --> 00:10:22,840 Speaker 1: In addition to his army service, Brand seems to have 174 00:10:22,880 --> 00:10:25,600 Speaker 1: done at least part of an apprenticeship with a glass 175 00:10:25,640 --> 00:10:29,080 Speaker 1: blower before turning his attention to alchemy. This would have 176 00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:31,080 Speaker 1: given him the skills to make some of the glass 177 00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:34,439 Speaker 1: vessels used in alchemy, and a glassblower's furnace would have 178 00:10:34,480 --> 00:10:38,000 Speaker 1: been useful to his alchemical pursuits as well. At some 179 00:10:38,080 --> 00:10:40,120 Speaker 1: point in all of this, he married a woman whose 180 00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:43,960 Speaker 1: dowry was large enough to fund his research. After Brand's 181 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:47,360 Speaker 1: first wife died, he remarried a woman named Margaretta, who 182 00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:51,479 Speaker 1: had also been married before. Her son became Brand's assistant 183 00:10:51,520 --> 00:10:54,400 Speaker 1: in his workshop, and her family's money continued to pay 184 00:10:54,440 --> 00:10:57,760 Speaker 1: for all of his experiments. He may have also presented 185 00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:01,439 Speaker 1: himself as a physician, although a into a nineteenth century 186 00:11:01,480 --> 00:11:05,360 Speaker 1: history of chemistry, he was quote an uncouth physician who 187 00:11:05,440 --> 00:11:08,280 Speaker 1: knew not a word of Latin. As we said before 188 00:11:08,320 --> 00:11:11,320 Speaker 1: the break, Brand was looking for the Philosopher's Stone, which 189 00:11:11,320 --> 00:11:13,880 Speaker 1: was believed to turn base metals into gold and produce 190 00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:17,920 Speaker 1: the elixir of life. Many alchemists believed that the key 191 00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:21,520 Speaker 1: to the Philosopher's Stone was somewhere in human bodily fluids, 192 00:11:22,040 --> 00:11:25,360 Speaker 1: and the fluid the Brand focused on was p Not 193 00:11:25,480 --> 00:11:28,319 Speaker 1: only is urine a bodily fluid, but it is also yellow, 194 00:11:28,520 --> 00:11:31,520 Speaker 1: you know, like gold. To be clear. Bread was not 195 00:11:31,640 --> 00:11:34,600 Speaker 1: the only person who thought that maybe urine had something 196 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:38,280 Speaker 1: to do with gold. Urine was pretty mysterious at the time. 197 00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:41,520 Speaker 1: Nobody knew how the body produced it or why it 198 00:11:41,559 --> 00:11:44,200 Speaker 1: was yellow, but they did know that it did all 199 00:11:44,280 --> 00:11:47,600 Speaker 1: kinds of fascinating and seemingly magical things we talked about. 200 00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:50,400 Speaker 1: It's used as a cleaning agent before the break, but 201 00:11:50,440 --> 00:11:53,680 Speaker 1: it was also used in tanning leather and dyeing fabric 202 00:11:53,760 --> 00:11:57,600 Speaker 1: and in all kinds of alchemical recipes. Urine was also 203 00:11:58,120 --> 00:12:01,040 Speaker 1: used in some methods of making saltpeter, and then the 204 00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:05,559 Speaker 1: saltpeter was used to make gunpowder, so part of gunpowder 205 00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:08,040 Speaker 1: was from urine. With all of those things going on, 206 00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:10,280 Speaker 1: it wasn't really that much of a stretch for people 207 00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:15,160 Speaker 1: to suspect that this strange, potent, seemingly slightly magical liquid 208 00:12:15,679 --> 00:12:19,600 Speaker 1: might be yellow because it contained gold. Today, though we 209 00:12:19,640 --> 00:12:22,959 Speaker 1: know that the yellow color mostly comes from a substance 210 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:25,920 Speaker 1: called uribilon, which is one of the end products of 211 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:30,200 Speaker 1: the bodies breaking down the iron containing molecule. Heam Brand's 212 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:33,680 Speaker 1: experiments with urine involved boiling it over and over in 213 00:12:33,679 --> 00:12:37,160 Speaker 1: a vessel called a retort. A retort is a spherical 214 00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:40,560 Speaker 1: vessel with a long, downward pointing spout. If you heat 215 00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:43,720 Speaker 1: up something in a retort, the vapor rises then condenses 216 00:12:43,840 --> 00:12:45,800 Speaker 1: in that long spout, so you can use it to 217 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:50,320 Speaker 1: distill things. One day, as Brand was distilling urine and 218 00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:53,200 Speaker 1: his retort, the fluid dripping out of the spout started 219 00:12:53,200 --> 00:12:57,040 Speaker 1: spontaneously bursting into flame. And it also smelled very strongly 220 00:12:57,080 --> 00:12:59,720 Speaker 1: of garlic. And he found if he caught it in 221 00:12:59,760 --> 00:13:02,200 Speaker 1: a vessel and then stoppard the vessel up, it would 222 00:13:02,280 --> 00:13:05,840 Speaker 1: glow regardless of whether it had been exposed to any light. 223 00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:14,320 Speaker 1: I'm sorry to laugh, Brand funny though it's like my 224 00:13:14,440 --> 00:13:18,480 Speaker 1: fiery garlic glo PI. I don't the thing is very funny. 225 00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:21,760 Speaker 1: Brand thought that he was onto something, perhaps even the 226 00:13:21,800 --> 00:13:25,800 Speaker 1: Philosopher's stone, so he kept refining his process, producing this 227 00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:30,040 Speaker 1: whitish waxy substance that was very volatile if exposed to air, 228 00:13:30,600 --> 00:13:32,440 Speaker 1: and it had a bluish glow if it was kept 229 00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:36,240 Speaker 1: away from air. Here is his recipe for making phosphorus, 230 00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:40,440 Speaker 1: as published in Philosophical Experiments and Observations of the late 231 00:13:40,480 --> 00:13:44,440 Speaker 1: eminent doctor Robert Hook, which was published in London in seventy. 232 00:13:44,520 --> 00:13:49,240 Speaker 1: Since this was almost sixty years after Brand's discovery and 233 00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:52,400 Speaker 1: recorded by a different person, it is likely that various 234 00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:55,520 Speaker 1: steps have been changed or added, but this definitely will 235 00:13:55,520 --> 00:13:58,000 Speaker 1: give you a sense of what all was involved in this. 236 00:13:58,640 --> 00:14:03,240 Speaker 1: So under the headache phosphors element Harus by Dr Brandt 237 00:14:03,280 --> 00:14:07,880 Speaker 1: of Hamburg, it reads, quote, take a quantity of urine, 238 00:14:08,440 --> 00:14:12,440 Speaker 1: not less for one experiment than fifty or sixty pails full. 239 00:14:13,280 --> 00:14:16,360 Speaker 1: Let it lie steeping in one or more tubs or 240 00:14:16,480 --> 00:14:21,040 Speaker 1: an hogshead of oaken wood, until it putrefy and breed worms, 241 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:24,560 Speaker 1: as it will do in fourteen or fifteen days. Then 242 00:14:24,880 --> 00:14:27,720 Speaker 1: in a large kettle, let some of it boil on 243 00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:31,920 Speaker 1: a strong fire, and as it consumes and evaporates, poor 244 00:14:31,960 --> 00:14:34,960 Speaker 1: in more, and so on, till at last the whole 245 00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:38,320 Speaker 1: quantity be reduced to a paste, or rather a hard 246 00:14:38,400 --> 00:14:41,840 Speaker 1: coal or crust, which it will resemble. And this may 247 00:14:41,880 --> 00:14:44,040 Speaker 1: be done in two or three days, if the fire 248 00:14:44,120 --> 00:14:47,640 Speaker 1: well tended, but else it may be doing a fortnight 249 00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:52,800 Speaker 1: or more. So. For one batch of phosphorus, brand was 250 00:14:52,880 --> 00:14:55,480 Speaker 1: leaving urine out in pals for about two weeks and 251 00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:59,080 Speaker 1: then boiling it for between two and fourteen days. And 252 00:14:59,120 --> 00:15:02,080 Speaker 1: that is not the to the process. From there you 253 00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:06,040 Speaker 1: powder the previously made coal or crust, and quote add 254 00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:09,760 Speaker 1: their to some fair water about fifteen fingers high or 255 00:15:09,800 --> 00:15:12,560 Speaker 1: four times as high as the powder, and boil them 256 00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:15,760 Speaker 1: together for one quarter of an hour. Then strain the 257 00:15:15,800 --> 00:15:19,280 Speaker 1: liquor and all through a woolen cloth. That which sticks 258 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:22,320 Speaker 1: behind may be thrown away, but the liquor that passes 259 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:25,000 Speaker 1: must be taken and boiled till it come to assault, 260 00:15:25,440 --> 00:15:29,000 Speaker 1: which will be in a few hours. This recipe continues 261 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:32,320 Speaker 1: on with adding more ingredients and steeping them together until 262 00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:35,480 Speaker 1: the substance became sort of a pap which left behind 263 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:39,040 Speaker 1: a red or reddish salt after being evaporated in sand, 264 00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:42,520 Speaker 1: and then that went into a retort. End quote for 265 00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:46,120 Speaker 1: the first hour began with a small fire, more the next, 266 00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:48,840 Speaker 1: a greater the third, and more the fourth, and then 267 00:15:48,920 --> 00:15:52,920 Speaker 1: continue it as high as you can for twenty four hours, 268 00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:56,000 Speaker 1: sometimes by the force of fire twelve hours proud as 269 00:15:56,080 --> 00:15:59,360 Speaker 1: enough for when you free the recipient white and shining 270 00:15:59,400 --> 00:16:02,000 Speaker 1: with the five and there are no more flashes or 271 00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:04,960 Speaker 1: as it were, blasts of wind coming from time to 272 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:07,920 Speaker 1: time from the retort, then the work is finished, and 273 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:10,720 Speaker 1: you may with a feather gather the fire together or 274 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:13,400 Speaker 1: scrape it off with a knife where it sticks. This 275 00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:16,320 Speaker 1: recipe goes on to stress the need to preserve this 276 00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:19,240 Speaker 1: fire in an airtight container, and how if you put 277 00:16:19,240 --> 00:16:23,280 Speaker 1: it in the sun. It might quote kindle gunpowder. I 278 00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:30,840 Speaker 1: think that might just mean explode. Uh this This recipe 279 00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:34,480 Speaker 1: also contains a cautionary tail quote. My author says he 280 00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:37,440 Speaker 1: had once wrapped a knob in wax at Hanover, and 281 00:16:37,440 --> 00:16:40,120 Speaker 1: it being in his pocket, and he busy near the fire, 282 00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:43,440 Speaker 1: the very heat of it let in flame and burned 283 00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:46,800 Speaker 1: all his clothes and his fingers also, for though he 284 00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:49,400 Speaker 1: rubbed them in the dirt, nothing would quench it unless 285 00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:52,440 Speaker 1: he had water. He was ill for fifteen days and 286 00:16:52,480 --> 00:16:57,560 Speaker 1: the skin came off. So don't do that. We should 287 00:16:57,600 --> 00:17:00,760 Speaker 1: note that it's possible that Paracelsus used a mimilar process 288 00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:03,880 Speaker 1: to produce phosphorus. In the sixteenth century, more than a 289 00:17:03,920 --> 00:17:07,800 Speaker 1: hundred years before Brand's discovery, he wrote about a process 290 00:17:07,840 --> 00:17:11,400 Speaker 1: for repeatedly distilling urine, which would cause what he described 291 00:17:11,480 --> 00:17:14,560 Speaker 1: as the earth, air and water to rise while the 292 00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:17,600 Speaker 1: fire fell out of it. After doing this several times, 293 00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:21,080 Speaker 1: he said there would be quote congealed certain icicles, which 294 00:17:21,119 --> 00:17:24,639 Speaker 1: are the element of fire. That sounds close enough to 295 00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:28,040 Speaker 1: what Brand was doing that these icicles could have been phosphorus. 296 00:17:28,119 --> 00:17:31,480 Speaker 1: But we also really don't know it just merits mentioning 297 00:17:31,560 --> 00:17:36,359 Speaker 1: as a potential comparative. Paracelsis has been on my episode 298 00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:40,359 Speaker 1: list for a very long time, long enough that I 299 00:17:40,400 --> 00:17:42,240 Speaker 1: was getting ready to do it, and then Saw Bones 300 00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:43,800 Speaker 1: did it, and I didn't want to feel like I 301 00:17:43,840 --> 00:17:46,639 Speaker 1: was copying saw Bones, even though not everybody listens to 302 00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:50,040 Speaker 1: both shows. But now it's been long enough, maybe he 303 00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:54,040 Speaker 1: will creep farther up the list. There are also other 304 00:17:54,080 --> 00:17:57,240 Speaker 1: accounts that describe Brand's process a little differently than that 305 00:17:57,320 --> 00:17:59,800 Speaker 1: recipe that we just went through, And in one of 306 00:17:59,800 --> 00:18:02,280 Speaker 1: the um the salts that are produced after the first 307 00:18:02,359 --> 00:18:05,959 Speaker 1: round of distilling the urine are discarded. That is actually 308 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:08,240 Speaker 1: where most of the phosphorus would have been at that 309 00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:10,479 Speaker 1: point in the process, So if Brand was doing it 310 00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:12,399 Speaker 1: that way, he would have been throwing away most of 311 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:15,720 Speaker 1: what he was trying to get. Regardless, though this was 312 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:21,160 Speaker 1: a long, involved, complicated, and frankly gross process. A seventeen 313 00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:24,760 Speaker 1: sixty seven Dictionary of Chemistry described it as more curious 314 00:18:24,800 --> 00:18:29,000 Speaker 1: than useful, along with being quote both costly and embarrassing. 315 00:18:29,800 --> 00:18:33,800 Speaker 1: But Brand was very fond of his costly embarrassing discovery. 316 00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:37,480 Speaker 1: He named it cold fire, or sometimes just my fire. 317 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:40,320 Speaker 1: It's not clear who was the first person to call 318 00:18:40,359 --> 00:18:43,840 Speaker 1: it phosphorus, which is from Latin words that mean bringer 319 00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:47,640 Speaker 1: of light or light bringer. That same term has also 320 00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:51,440 Speaker 1: been used to describe a variety of other glowing substances. 321 00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:56,159 Speaker 1: Brand kept his discovery secret for about six years, and 322 00:18:56,160 --> 00:18:58,560 Speaker 1: we'll get to what happened when knowledge spread about it 323 00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:09,159 Speaker 1: after we first have a little sponsor break. Hennig Brand's 324 00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:13,159 Speaker 1: discovery became public knowledge through a murky series of events 325 00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:18,359 Speaker 1: involving two other men named Johann Kuncle and Johan Daniel Kraft, who, 326 00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:20,480 Speaker 1: like a lot of other people in the story, worked 327 00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:24,720 Speaker 1: in both chemistry and alchemy. It seems as though Uncle 328 00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:27,320 Speaker 1: had a piece of Bologna stone, and this was a 329 00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:30,040 Speaker 1: rock that was first described in sixteen o three by 330 00:19:30,160 --> 00:19:35,199 Speaker 1: Vincenzo Cascarolo, and this stone glowed in the dark. Cascarolo 331 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:37,880 Speaker 1: was a shoemaker, and like so many other people, he 332 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:41,160 Speaker 1: was hoping to find gold. He had collected a bunch 333 00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:43,359 Speaker 1: of interesting rocks from the mountains near his home in 334 00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:46,320 Speaker 1: Bologna in what is now Italy, and he discovered that 335 00:19:46,359 --> 00:19:48,200 Speaker 1: if you baked them and then left them out in 336 00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:51,560 Speaker 1: the sun, they would glow in the dark. Bologna stone 337 00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:54,840 Speaker 1: became a curiosity and a source of fascination, as people 338 00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:57,440 Speaker 1: wondered whether there was something magical about it and whether 339 00:19:57,480 --> 00:19:59,919 Speaker 1: it might have something to do with the Philosopher's Stone. 340 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:04,280 Speaker 1: Galileo described it this way in sixteen twelve quote, it 341 00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:06,960 Speaker 1: must be explained how it happens that the light is 342 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:10,280 Speaker 1: conceived into the stone and is given back after some time, 343 00:20:10,640 --> 00:20:14,520 Speaker 1: as in childbirth. Today we know that Bologna stone was 344 00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:17,760 Speaker 1: in fact Barriam sulfide I love how so many elements 345 00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:20,119 Speaker 1: of this story are like what if I baked some rocks? 346 00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:25,240 Speaker 1: What if I had distilled p over and over? So 347 00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:28,760 Speaker 1: Kunkle was intrigued not only by Bologna stone, but also 348 00:20:28,800 --> 00:20:31,840 Speaker 1: by all kinds of other luminescent substances. And so when 349 00:20:31,880 --> 00:20:35,119 Speaker 1: he heard that somebody in Hamburg had created something that 350 00:20:35,200 --> 00:20:38,720 Speaker 1: glowed indefinitely, he got really excited, and he wrote a 351 00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:41,439 Speaker 1: letter to Craft about going to Hamburg to see what 352 00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:44,119 Speaker 1: this was all about. In some versions of this story, 353 00:20:44,280 --> 00:20:47,240 Speaker 1: Kunkle and Craft went together and Brand taught them both 354 00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:50,080 Speaker 1: how to make phosphorus after Craft paid him to do it. 355 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:53,119 Speaker 1: But in other versions of the story, Craft swooped in 356 00:20:53,160 --> 00:20:56,040 Speaker 1: ahead of Kunkle and paid Brand, not only to show 357 00:20:56,080 --> 00:20:58,719 Speaker 1: him how to make phosphorus, but also to keep that 358 00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:02,280 Speaker 1: information from Craft offt Yeah then that version of the story, 359 00:21:02,440 --> 00:21:05,080 Speaker 1: Craft had to work it out for himself, and regardless 360 00:21:05,119 --> 00:21:07,760 Speaker 1: of which of these is more accurate, both Kuncle and 361 00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:11,400 Speaker 1: Craft did wind up knowing how to make phosphorus. Crafts 362 00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:15,320 Speaker 1: started traveling around Europe with phosphorus and other glowing substances, 363 00:21:15,359 --> 00:21:18,920 Speaker 1: and he did experiments with them before nobles and dignitaries. 364 00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:23,480 Speaker 1: This included Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke Collector of Brandenburg, Prussia, on 365 00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:27,760 Speaker 1: April sixteen seventy six, and then a year later crafted 366 00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:30,960 Speaker 1: the same at the court of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Brunswick, 367 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:37,000 Speaker 1: Lunenburg and Hanover. Kraft's friend Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, was among 368 00:21:37,040 --> 00:21:41,200 Speaker 1: other things, the Duke's librarian, and Leibnitz suggested that maybe 369 00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:44,119 Speaker 1: phosphorus could be used to light a whole room, but 370 00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:46,520 Speaker 1: Kraft said production of that much of it would be 371 00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:50,359 Speaker 1: just way too difficult. Even so, the Duke became intrigued 372 00:21:50,359 --> 00:21:53,640 Speaker 1: with the idea of setting up a mass production facility 373 00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:56,600 Speaker 1: out in the Hearts Mountains, presumably so the smell of 374 00:21:56,640 --> 00:22:00,680 Speaker 1: it wouldn't bother people. Leibnitz negotiated with Brand to come 375 00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:03,080 Speaker 1: to Hanover to work on the project, and he recruited 376 00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:07,560 Speaker 1: a workforce and started stockpiling lots of firewood and barrels 377 00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:11,359 Speaker 1: full of urine. It's not a hundred percent clear where 378 00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:13,800 Speaker 1: all of this urine came from, and these stories, like 379 00:22:13,840 --> 00:22:17,880 Speaker 1: there's one account that says that Brand had a relationship 380 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:21,120 Speaker 1: with a tavern keeper or a brewer or some other 381 00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:24,959 Speaker 1: person who would have a clientele that pete a lot 382 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:33,280 Speaker 1: but a little vague. Meanwhile, Gustav Adolf, the Duke of 383 00:22:33,359 --> 00:22:37,439 Speaker 1: Mecklenburg Gustrau, also heard about phosphorus and decided that he 384 00:22:37,520 --> 00:22:41,159 Speaker 1: also wanted to start a phosphorus factory as well, and 385 00:22:41,359 --> 00:22:46,080 Speaker 1: this Deuce representative Yohadwaki Betcher started trying to recruit Brand 386 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:49,159 Speaker 1: away from Hanover. It seems as though Brand tried to 387 00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:53,040 Speaker 1: use Betcher's offer to negotiate for more money from Hanover, 388 00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:56,159 Speaker 1: but he wasn't really savvy enough to do this, and 389 00:22:56,200 --> 00:22:58,960 Speaker 1: instead he just came off as kind of cranky and obstinate. 390 00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:01,479 Speaker 1: And in the middle of all of this, Craft started 391 00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:04,679 Speaker 1: writing to Hanover as well, suggesting that he might actually 392 00:23:04,760 --> 00:23:07,800 Speaker 1: be a better manager than Brand for this whole phosphorus 393 00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:12,119 Speaker 1: production project. Leibnitz persuaded the Duke to keep working with Brand, 394 00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:14,760 Speaker 1: and it appears that during all of this Brand did 395 00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:19,840 Speaker 1: finally document his methods for making phosphorus. He apparently ran 396 00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:23,639 Speaker 1: a mass production facility out in the mountains for a 397 00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:27,639 Speaker 1: few months. Then, in the late sixteen seventies, phosphorus and 398 00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:31,159 Speaker 1: the knowledge of how to make it reached England. Robert Boyle, 399 00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:33,720 Speaker 1: who was one of the founders of modern chemistry, heard 400 00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:37,760 Speaker 1: about Brand's production of phosphorus from urine and he independently 401 00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:39,560 Speaker 1: worked out his own way to do the same thing. 402 00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:43,280 Speaker 1: About ten years later. Boyle then worked to establish a 403 00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:48,159 Speaker 1: phosphorus production facility in London. As phosphorus became more available, 404 00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:52,120 Speaker 1: demand for its skyrocketed. It went from being a curiosity 405 00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:54,600 Speaker 1: that people thought may or may not be the philosopher's 406 00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:58,480 Speaker 1: stone to something that had, at least in theory practical uses. 407 00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:02,119 Speaker 1: Johan kunk Will figured out how to cast phosphorus into 408 00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:05,040 Speaker 1: molds underwater and wrote a treatise on the use of 409 00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:09,159 Speaker 1: phosphorus in medicine called Treatise of the Phosphorus Mirabilius and 410 00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:13,639 Speaker 1: Its wonderful shining pills. Soon, phosphorus was being marketed as 411 00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:16,480 Speaker 1: a cure, all prepared in a variety of pills and 412 00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:22,640 Speaker 1: oils and liniments. It was recommended for alcoholism, apoplexy, asthma, cataracts, cholera, 413 00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:29,639 Speaker 1: colic depression, epilepsy, fever, glaucoma, gout, impotence, migraines, paralysis, scrawphula, tetanus, toothaches, 414 00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:32,400 Speaker 1: and tuberculosis. And that is only to name a few. 415 00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:36,119 Speaker 1: Although phosphates have some medical uses, pure phosphorus does not 416 00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:38,439 Speaker 1: treat any of these things, and is in fact highly 417 00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:41,399 Speaker 1: toxic and can be used as a poison. Henning Brand 418 00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:44,960 Speaker 1: died around seventeen ten, and about thirty years later, Andreas 419 00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:49,840 Speaker 1: Sigismund Magraph discovered phosphorus in edible seeds. He concluded that 420 00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:53,160 Speaker 1: people were consuming phosphorus in their food and then excreting 421 00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:55,880 Speaker 1: it in their urine, and this was the first step 422 00:24:55,920 --> 00:24:59,320 Speaker 1: in the scientific communities understanding of phosphorus as a chemical 423 00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:01,879 Speaker 1: element and of its movement through the world in the 424 00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:05,760 Speaker 1: phosphorus cycle. This is a cycle that begins with phosphate 425 00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:09,280 Speaker 1: rich rock and moves through water and soil into plants 426 00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:12,239 Speaker 1: and animals. Then back into the water and soil, and 427 00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:16,600 Speaker 1: then into sedimentary rock. By the early nineteenth century, phosphorus 428 00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:20,400 Speaker 1: was seeing large scale industrial production thanks to the discovery 429 00:25:20,400 --> 00:25:24,640 Speaker 1: that it could be extracted from bone ash. Most notably, 430 00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:27,800 Speaker 1: white phosphorus was used to make matches, which is something 431 00:25:27,800 --> 00:25:30,000 Speaker 1: that we talked about in a prior episode on the 432 00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:34,160 Speaker 1: London Match Girls Strike. White phosphorus was really dangerous though 433 00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:37,359 Speaker 1: it caused a serious medical condition known as Fossey jaw, 434 00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:40,760 Speaker 1: and in eighteen forty nine, red phosphorus was introduced as 435 00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:45,040 Speaker 1: a less dangerous substitute. By eighteen fifty one, phosphorus was 436 00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:50,200 Speaker 1: seeing more practical uses, including in manufactured fertilizers. This actually 437 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:52,800 Speaker 1: led to a supply and demand problem, which led people 438 00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:55,920 Speaker 1: to look for new sources of phosphorus. One of these 439 00:25:56,040 --> 00:26:00,920 Speaker 1: was guano. Guano itself is rich in phosphates, nitrogen, and potassium, 440 00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:04,879 Speaker 1: making it an excellent fertilizer. The sedimentary rocks that form 441 00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:08,640 Speaker 1: in places with lots of guano are also rich in phosphates, 442 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:11,240 Speaker 1: and this led to a land gram for islands and 443 00:26:11,359 --> 00:26:14,600 Speaker 1: caves with lots of guano. In eighteen fifty six, U 444 00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:17,639 Speaker 1: S Congress past the Guano Islands Act, which allowed the 445 00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:21,440 Speaker 1: United States to claim uninhabited islands to mine the guano 446 00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:24,960 Speaker 1: on them. They were uninhabited by people, They were inhabited 447 00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:29,119 Speaker 1: by lots and lots of birds. Today, the vast majority 448 00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:32,280 Speaker 1: of phosphorus is mined from rocks that are rich in 449 00:26:32,359 --> 00:26:36,399 Speaker 1: calcium phosphate, and about nine of that mined phosphorus is 450 00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:38,680 Speaker 1: put to one use and that is back to fertilizer. 451 00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:43,480 Speaker 1: Phosphorus is still used for other applications as well, including plastics, 452 00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:47,439 Speaker 1: fuel additives, fireworks, rat poison, and of course it is 453 00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:50,159 Speaker 1: still used to make matches. It used to be in 454 00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:53,119 Speaker 1: a lot of detergents, because, like we said earlier, it 455 00:26:53,119 --> 00:26:56,720 Speaker 1: helps detergents clean better, but too much phosphate and bodies 456 00:26:56,760 --> 00:26:59,520 Speaker 1: of water leads to algae overgrowths and so a lot 457 00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:02,520 Speaker 1: of nation and to be either banned or strictly limited 458 00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:06,400 Speaker 1: the use of phosphates and detergent. Phosphorus is also used 459 00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:10,080 Speaker 1: in weapons, including organophosphates which are chemical weapons known as 460 00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:15,640 Speaker 1: nerve gas, as well as incendiary devices and smoke screens. Ironically, Hamburg, 461 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:19,359 Speaker 1: where phosphorus was discovered, was hit with thousands of phosphorus 462 00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:24,160 Speaker 1: containing incendiary bombs during Operation Gomera in World War Two. Yeah, 463 00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:27,320 Speaker 1: the use of phosphorus and weapons is pretty controversial today, 464 00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:32,320 Speaker 1: but it's still is used. Phosphate rock is not a 465 00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:36,920 Speaker 1: renewable resource. Even though the phosphate cycle does eventually put 466 00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:41,399 Speaker 1: phosphates back into rocks, that it takes a really long time, 467 00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:43,639 Speaker 1: and over the past few years there has been some 468 00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:47,320 Speaker 1: discussion about whether the world is running out of phosphorus. 469 00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:50,800 Speaker 1: Phosphorus itself is not in very short supply. It's one 470 00:27:50,840 --> 00:27:54,119 Speaker 1: of the most common elements on the planet, but there's 471 00:27:54,200 --> 00:27:56,679 Speaker 1: not that much of it that can be mined without 472 00:27:56,800 --> 00:28:01,200 Speaker 1: huge environmental damage. Like there's a lot of phosphorus everywhere, 473 00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:04,040 Speaker 1: but only a very few places with phosphorus and a 474 00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:08,160 Speaker 1: high enough concentration to be able to efficiently mine it. 475 00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:11,879 Speaker 1: It's not totally clear exactly how much available phosphate there 476 00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:14,840 Speaker 1: is in rocks that can reasonably be mined, or when 477 00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:19,200 Speaker 1: we might reach peak phosphorus. Predictions run anywhere from decades 478 00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:23,240 Speaker 1: to centuries. Because the vast majority of phosphorus is used 479 00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:26,600 Speaker 1: as fertilizer for plants that directly or indirectly become food, 480 00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:30,280 Speaker 1: this shortage has the potential to be a global catastrophe. 481 00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:34,280 Speaker 1: And one of the proposed alternatives is urine recycling or 482 00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:41,600 Speaker 1: all the way back to just boiling some urine until exploding. 483 00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:46,600 Speaker 1: I'm glad I got this whole Handig brand thing out 484 00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:49,280 Speaker 1: of my system after like three years of saying I 485 00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:51,760 Speaker 1: should do a podcast on that guy and has weird 486 00:28:51,960 --> 00:29:00,240 Speaker 1: urine boiling. Thank you so much for joining us today 487 00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:02,840 Speaker 1: for this classic. 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