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The Man Who Put the Pee in Phosphorus

submitted by Aard Vark

(oritteropo)
8 years 6 months 2 weeks ago

YouTube description:

In the 1660's, German alchemist Hennig Brand thought he knew the secret to making solid gold: pee. So set was he on these golden ambitions, he dehydrated 1,500 gallons (gallons!) of human urine to make it happen. Though pee ultimately failed to produce gold, Brand didn't have to flush all his hard work down the toilet. In a surprise twist, he discovered a glowing substance we now call phosphorus.

3 Comments

ant

jokingly says...

I think I need to go pee.

thegrimsleeper

says...

i love the sound effects in the video, they're surprisingly good at adding some humor

LiquidDrift says...

I remember Neal Stephenson touching on this in his Baroque Cycle trilogy. In the book, they boiled urine to make phosphorous, and then used it as molotov cocktails if memory serves.