Hennig Brand was obsessed with discovering the philosopher’s stone. Alternatively known as the elixir of life, the philosopher’s stone promised its finder eternal life and the ability to turn common metals into gold.
Brand grew to believe that human urine offered a gateway to the elixir of life. This was typical alchemical thinking – alchemists hoped to better understand eternal life through studying the properties of body fluids.
Brand collected thousands of liters of urine from his neighbors. Although someone doing this today would probably be regarded as screwy, it was a common practice to collect urine in earlier times – it had plenty of uses, such as fertilizing crops, softening leather, and cleaning your teeth!
In 1669, in Hamburg, Brand evaporated the urine he collected to yield a black sludge. He left this to mature until worms started appearing in it. He heated the sludge with sand, yielding hot gases and oils, which he condensed using cold water. The final substance to condense was a white solid. This was phosphorus. (Human urine contains significant quantities of dissolved phosphates.)
At first Brand called the remarkable new substance ‘cold fire’ because it glowed in the dark. He then named it phosphorus, which is Greek for ‘bringer of light.’ He was the first named person in history to discover a new chemical element.
The image herein was painted long after Brand’s lifetime by the British artist Joseph Wright in 1771. Its wordy title is: The Alchymist, in Search of the Philosopher’s Stone, Discovers Phosphorus, and prays for the successful Conclusion of his operation, as was the custom of the Ancient Chymical Astrologers. The painting shows white phosphorus glowing with exaggerated intensity. White phosphorus naturally produces a rather dim green glow.
I find this work of art amazing.
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This is an index of art that I have found profound, interesting, beautiful or enlightening. In any event, I find that art soothes my soul. I enjoy painting figurative and portraits in oils using the more traditional Flemish technique, but it never really brought me the kind of money I need to live off of. Such is the life of a painter today. Please enjoy.
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