A Fact A Day # 1

This fact given below just shows how some things can be discovered or invented while inventing or discovering other things. In the past, some people believed that base metals like lead could be changed into Gold. One such 'Alchemist' was Hennig Brand, who discovered Phosphorus while trying to make gold!!!

German Alchemist Hennig Brand stored 50 buckets of urine in his cellar for months in 1669 and heated residues from boiled-down urine on his furnace until the retort was red hot, where all of a sudden glowing fumes filled it and liquid dripped out, bursting into flames. He could catch the liquid in a jar and cover it, where it solidified and continued to give off a pale-green glow. What he collected was phosphorus literally meaning 'light bearer' in Greek.