Glowing with possibilities

It was Hennig Brand who first synthesized phosphorus in its elemental form. He was aiming...for gold.

- Swetha Sivakumar

This was in the 1600s, a period when men of science around the world believed there was an element out there that could turn base metals into gold: the so-called philosopher's stone.

Brand, a German alchemist living in Hamburg, became convinced that urine held the key to such transformation. He collected and fermented barrels of it, boiled it for days, and eventually produced a black sludge. Further heating yielded waxy, glowing nuggets that were named phosphorus, Greek for "bringer of light".

Its volatile nature also earned it a nickname. Prone to spontaneously combust in warm temperatures and produce a dense and toxic smoke, it was called "the devil's element". During World War 2, white phosphorus bombs sparked firestorms that destroyed entire neighborhoods. In one such firestorm, 37,000 people died in Hamburg, in 1943.