The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Brandt, Nicholas
BRANDT, Nicholas, German chemist of
the 17th century, usually considered the discoverer
of phosphorus. Leibnitz mentions him as
a chemist of Hamburg, who, during a course of
experiments on urine, for the purpose of
discovering a solvent which would convert silver
into gold, accidentally produced phosphorus, in
1667 or 1669. He communicated or sold his
discovery to Kunkel, who showed it to Leibnitz.
Boyle, securing a piece of the phosphorus,
and knowing from what material it had been
obtained, after various experiments succeeded
in preparing it and thus made an independent
discovery of the method.