Was This The WEIRDEST Discovery of an Element Ever?

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ก.พ. 2025

ความคิดเห็น • 933

  • @Chemistorian
    @Chemistorian  3 หลายเดือนก่อน +41

    The first 500 people to use my link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/chemistorian10241

    • @olivere5497
      @olivere5497 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @@Chemistorian is skillshare a copyrighted trade mark? My mates used to organise free events called skillshares where people would teach how to code or fix stuff or grow veg.

    • @LanceFleming-d2z
      @LanceFleming-d2z 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Why do you speak like you have a speech impediment?

    • @LanceFleming-d2z
      @LanceFleming-d2z 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Your voice is annoying, distraction

    • @olivere5497
      @olivere5497 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@LanceFleming-d2z me?

    • @eanjan8812
      @eanjan8812 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      So can’t you do an actual video on actual alchemy instead of the going the ignorant route thinking they meant literal gold.

  • @No-uc6fg
    @No-uc6fg 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +376

    I'd say that THE weirdest and most ridiculous way of discovering an element was UC Berkeley asking the US military to detonate a goddamned Nuke on the pacific coast, have a jet fly through the shroom cloud then analyze the particles and dust found on the jet, which indeed helped them discover elements 99 and 100.

    • @HeyItsDyl
      @HeyItsDyl 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +80

      Thats not weird, that’s just American 🦅🇺🇸💥

    • @olivere5497
      @olivere5497 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

      ​@@HeyItsDylcan you handle it bruh?

    • @olivere5497
      @olivere5497 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +27

      Thats not weird, they knew exactly what to expect as the table of elements is predictable. What i dont get is how would they get a sample and test it before it half life's it ass out of there.
      'Heheheh, so long mo-fos!'

    • @asandax6
      @asandax6 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

      ​@@olivere5497 Half life just means half of it is gone by that point not all. So trace amounts will be detected.

    • @olivere5497
      @olivere5497 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +16

      @@asandax6 but if its half life is a few seconds, what exactly could they on that airplane apart from just lie? If i was a scientist i'd be pretty cheesed off, its my first big job out of MIT and im literally flying through an atomic dust cloud with a tampon sticking out the window.

  • @michaelobrien9053
    @michaelobrien9053 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +796

    Oh yes, the piss boiling man. I’m sure his neighbors loved him.

    • @EMC273
      @EMC273 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      XD

    • @custos3249
      @custos3249 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

      If you think that's bad, consider the processes behind "pure finders."

    • @boxsterman77
      @boxsterman77 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

      And when the smell finally dissipated, then came the flies.

    • @olivere5497
      @olivere5497 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +25

      Pee was used by leather tanners.

    • @Mold____AscorbicAcid
      @Mold____AscorbicAcid 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      And nilered​@@olivere5497

  • @DonnyHooterHoot
    @DonnyHooterHoot 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +715

    Sounds like Monty Python logic. If piss is yellow and gold is yellow, they MUST be the same thing! Boil the piss!!

    • @pencilpauli9442
      @pencilpauli9442 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +55

      Such associations would have been common. Sympathetic magic worked (or rather didn't work) in the same way.
      A rhinoceros horn is a bit phallic so if you kill the animal and cut off the poor thing's horn, grind it down, then ingest the powder, it will give you a stiffy.

    • @MadScientist267
      @MadScientist267 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +19

      Success is but a series of failures sitting at a benchmark.

    • @ominous-omnipresent-they
      @ominous-omnipresent-they 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

      Boil the urine until thou hast bathe in the light of the Almighty!

    • @OpenThrottle47
      @OpenThrottle47 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Boil the piss!!!

    • @Daniel-yn2lh
      @Daniel-yn2lh 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      OMG you're right I could actually see that, maybe put it in the HOLY HAND GRENADE 😂😂

  • @MercyMenace
    @MercyMenace 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +424

    Phosphorus is a cool name I guess, but I'd have called it 'Urinium'.

    • @DoubleMrE
      @DoubleMrE 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +13

      Does that come from Uranus? Oh wait…. 😂😂😂

    • @SubvertTheState
      @SubvertTheState 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

      ​@@DoubleMrE That would be Uranium.
      "Urinium?"
      No, Uranium.

    • @KWifler
      @KWifler 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      Ah, that explains its (fake) green glow in the movies! They mixed up the two!

    • @flowerofash4439
      @flowerofash4439 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      more like pisspirus

    • @thecannonball34
      @thecannonball34 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      But it isn't a metal.

  • @seekvapes9641
    @seekvapes9641 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +183

    "What if we find a substance that could turn any metal into gold?"
    "That would be awesome, imagine what it would do it we ate it?"
    "I'm pretty sure that would grant us immortality!"
    "That sounds like a reasonable prediction, can't argue with that."

    • @Yora21
      @Yora21 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +21

      That's where Alchemy is very different from Chemistry.
      Alchemy assumes the existence of all kinds of magical phenomenons and its goals are more about a spiritual metamorphosis rather than just figuring out how ordinary matter works. There are many additional steps in the magical logic of Alchemy that make that sequence of reasoning a lot less random and insane. (Though still completely wrong.)

    • @wahhnopfp
      @wahhnopfp 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@Yora21 Had it described to me once as the same (in a sense) as the difference between Astronomy and Astrology. Both are looking at stars (elements), one's just spiritual about it. You can think of Alchemy As Alt-Chemistry. Sort of like pseudoscience vs science.

    • @sootuckchoong7077
      @sootuckchoong7077 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      I'll experiment how to use my urine to make gold.

    • @pauldreze3414
      @pauldreze3414 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      l’or perdrait sa valeur.

    • @yourtrunkrattles4398
      @yourtrunkrattles4398 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Laugh all you want but this pee method is a classified Cia document.... but why

  • @quantumview8151
    @quantumview8151 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +211

    The image of an entire factory that boils piss is nauseating

    • @unknownhuman1000
      @unknownhuman1000 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

      As also the smell would be.

    • @quantumview8151
      @quantumview8151 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

      @@unknownhuman1000 that's what i was meaning

    • @coryearnest9464
      @coryearnest9464 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Sounds like heaven to Pissbois and Girls lmfao

    • @Yora21
      @Yora21 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

      They wouldn't have been the only ones. The whole leather and fabric industry had been doing this on a large scale for centuries.

    • @wilhelmschmidt7240
      @wilhelmschmidt7240 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      You always knew when you were near a tannery.

  • @amosbackstrom5366
    @amosbackstrom5366 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +100

    "Somewhat that belonged to the body of man..."
    I'm surprised Boyle didn't try bones, which would have yielded far more phosphorus. Probably illegal, but when has that stopped the greatest minds of a time?

    • @newperve
      @newperve 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +19

      Human bones might be hard to legally obtain, but animal bones are available at your local butcher.

    • @amosbackstrom5366
      @amosbackstrom5366 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +23

      @newperve Yes, but alas, Human exceptionalism was a significant bias. This material was derived from a man, who's "life essence" is indisputably greater than a lowly beast.

    • @C0lon0
      @C0lon0 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

      It was the 17th century, you could easily get human bones if you was a famous scientist.

    • @boxsterman77
      @boxsterman77 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      And I’m surprised you didn’t caught on the he literally discovered it so how could he know it was more abundant in bones.

    • @justinokraski3796
      @justinokraski3796 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      The bones from many battlefields were ground into dust for use as fertilizers

  • @stickyfox
    @stickyfox 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +70

    My chemistry professor called phosphorus the only element derived from its chemical symbol.

  • @KnockKnockShows
    @KnockKnockShows 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +206

    Next time I'm caught bottling my urine I'll play the 'It's for science' card.

    • @astrokitty.404
      @astrokitty.404 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

      next time??? could thou enlighten us on how you got caught the first time (if u did)

    • @unknownhuman1000
      @unknownhuman1000 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      Did this as a kid.

    • @jaredf6205
      @jaredf6205 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +13

      As everyone knows, you can't pause a multiplayer game... What am I supposed to do?

    • @DH-.
      @DH-. 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      Amazon drivers always have piss bottles, never shake their hands.

    • @TotalDec
      @TotalDec 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      I've seen bottles of pee outside my Drs. office. It was strange at first. Then, I realized ppl were trying to beat UA's.

  • @EMC273
    @EMC273 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +40

    This is such a fascinating and hilarious story of the discovery of phosphorus. Keep doing the good work, my king.

  • @Ethyn_Jackson
    @Ethyn_Jackson 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +113

    I'm ashamed to admit there's a mountain dew bottle in my room synthesizing some phosphorus.

    • @MercyMenace
      @MercyMenace 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +21

      Hey, you gotta dew what you gotta dew.

    • @Erewhon2024
      @Erewhon2024 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      @Ethyn_Jackson Matter is conserved. The P from your pee isn't being synthesized (created), but it is being concentrated as water evaporates, and chemical/microbial action is probably changing the molecules of which the phosphorus is a part (organic stuff like phopholipids and nucleic acids are probably being broken down to release orthophosphates into the water.

    • @младенец
      @младенец 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

      Brother ew

    • @randal_gibbons
      @randal_gibbons 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      Now try using a Styrofoam cup. Notify us of your findings.

    • @bghiggy
      @bghiggy 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      Brother please go throw that away. You aren't going to create the philosophers stone, it's just gross.

  • @Aurochs330
    @Aurochs330 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +25

    I love these videos. Every single one is an obscure story that I would’ve otherwise never heard about. Cheers!

  • @NonBinary_Star
    @NonBinary_Star 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +51

    Imagine hangin out, out back, casually simmering a behemoth vat of 1500 GALLONS! of putrid urine🌞 ...birds fallin out trees ... squirrels throwin up acorns ...what a delight

    • @stuartgmk
      @stuartgmk 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      😂😂😂

    • @jacoblecoy3700
      @jacoblecoy3700 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      All of the crocks might leave the Down Under.

    • @williamhines525
      @williamhines525 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      A, It was hard to read without laughing, but yeh.lol😅

  • @jmchez
    @jmchez 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +33

    I don't know if it's true but I heard that, in the past, Chemistry professors would tell their students that if a 17th century alchemist could distill phosphorus, certainly a 19th /20th century student could do it too. As one would expect, gullible students would recount how they were in huge trouble with their parents or landlords because the stench would not go away.
    The BBC did film a chemist recreating Brandt's experiment. He used about 4 liters of urine and got phosphorus but complained that the stench was almost unbearable.

    • @ThootenTootinTabootin
      @ThootenTootinTabootin หลายเดือนก่อน

      You build up a tolerance. Source: I'm actually a gross human being

  • @splotters
    @splotters 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +42

    Discovered in Dresden and used to destroy Dresden.

  • @aurelianocaballero2232
    @aurelianocaballero2232 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

    Amazing story! It answered two questions: how phosphorus was found and why alchemists are unpopular.

  • @truthtoad
    @truthtoad 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +46

    Is this where the phrase "pissing away a fortune" came from?

    • @eeveeofalltrades4780
      @eeveeofalltrades4780 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      That's a phrase?

    • @antonkovalenko364
      @antonkovalenko364 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Got 'em.

    • @sirsnipermonkey
      @sirsnipermonkey 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      More likely linked to alcohol and the diuretic effect

    • @thecasualape6689
      @thecasualape6689 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      no. it is however where the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn gets it's name from. as the recipe for a philosopher stone was believed to be the first urine in the morning after a night of restful sleep. something to do with chemicals present during sleep that arent the rest of the day and storing up of minerals etc over night.

    • @johnknoefler
      @johnknoefler หลายเดือนก่อน

      No, actually it means you've wasted all your money on wine and beer and pissed it away.

  • @U.Inferno
    @U.Inferno 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +89

    I can turn Iron into gold by throwing a shit ton of Iodine at it really really fast

    • @davidripley2916
      @davidripley2916 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

      Wait ✋️ till you get the leccy bill for your LINAC lol 😆
      You gonna need the Gold to pay it off

    • @jesscorbin5981
      @jesscorbin5981 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      You must know Cody then; he produces tons of magnetite

    • @voornaam3191
      @voornaam3191 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      Great, and if you produce tons and tons and tons, when do you expect the price of your gold to be only half of what you received at your first deals? There are countries where there is so much gold, people preferred alumin(i)um jewelry.

    • @fritsdaalmans5589
      @fritsdaalmans5589 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      There's an Asimov story about that in one of his Foundation books

  • @L14MA
    @L14MA 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +13

    First vid of this channel I've watched, and it's great. Looks like I'm watching the back catalogue.

  • @bunsenn5064
    @bunsenn5064 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +24

    I love how arguably the weirdest discovery of an element was also the very first chemical element discovered in the modern era.

  • @RichardStasiak-v6t
    @RichardStasiak-v6t 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +18

    This is like the Monty Python insurance sketch where the guy collects gallons of urine just to prove he's serious about getting insurance.

  • @Jo-JoandTaffy
    @Jo-JoandTaffy 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +36

    That guy really just didnt want to tell anyone that he liked playing with piss.

    • @muffinbra
      @muffinbra 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    • @tompetty85
      @tompetty85 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      😂😂😂

  • @ElectronicsGuy666
    @ElectronicsGuy666 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +31

    When I was a kid I peed in a pot and boiled it on the stove to make my brother mad. It worked. It was only boiling for about 2 min and stunk up the house for days. I can’t imagine 7000L of weeks old urine jfc

  • @albdim1
    @albdim1 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Fantastic video! Fantastic! Please, make more of these. Every student who, unfortunately, has hated Chemistry because of school, will start, hopefully, discovering its fun and love it. You are an Alchemist, you know...

  • @pablocardona8158
    @pablocardona8158 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    Just found this cannel, I never really got chemistry, the classes were too boring, your videos helped me realize how beautiful and interesting chem history really is, defintely subscribing🎉

    • @Chemistorian
      @Chemistorian  3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      That’s amazing to hear, welcome aboard! 👨‍🔬

  • @Guranga93
    @Guranga93 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

    ''Can't talk right now, I'm boiling PISS''
    -Hennig Brandt

    • @martintuma9974
      @martintuma9974 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Vaše hovna, naše radost (your sh*ts, our joy)

  • @VeteranVandal
    @VeteranVandal 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    We now know how to transmute and we concluded that it's not worth actually doing it, it's cheaper in all kinds of ways to not use gold.

  • @void________
    @void________ 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +19

    Wait how did he know the layer was salty??🤢

    • @pablovi77
      @pablovi77 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      Because it’s a crystal

    • @madrat9633
      @madrat9633 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      Breaks off makes crystals

    • @lilahfeuquay5351
      @lilahfeuquay5351 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      AWE>BUMMER >THESE "OTHER" > REPLIES>are:["BORING"]> ((" YA'LL KNOW > "DARN / "GOOD n' WELL"➡[["BRANDT"]]➡PUT \"THAT"\TO HIS👅😝😛🤮👅-->Just For a lil' ➡"SALT*LICKER'S" \"PROOF" of 🧠"KNOWLEDGE"\‼> Being : [AN "ALCHEMIST"🧙‍♂"SCIENTIST"/❕➡[YES]❗➡[INDEED]❗➡👨‍🔬"SCIENTIFICALLY"↔"MADDENING"

    • @wesdiego08
      @wesdiego08 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Same thing I said

    • @echo.messenger
      @echo.messenger 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      😂

  • @lashark06
    @lashark06 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

    The irony is that brannt was very close to the truth, the stone isn't about wealth it's about health....

    • @pierreetienneschneider6731
      @pierreetienneschneider6731 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yep, he discovered a very essential nutrient 😊
      Which strangely in the form he obtained, P4, white phosphorus, is stupidly toxic.
      But in it's phosphate form, if you don't have enough, you can't make ATP or new DNA and you die quite quickly.

  • @dreamfletcher779
    @dreamfletcher779 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    3:00 he did this because putrefaction was well-known to be the first step in the alchemical Magnum Opus ("the great work"-- the endeavor to create the Philosopher's Stone). There were different models for the steps of the work -- putrefaction being called Nigredo in some -- but they all began with putrefaction.
    The idea is that the original material is "reborn" as the Stone-- it must "die" first.

  • @johnbrimmer9403
    @johnbrimmer9403 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

    One night , at a music festival, my tripping friend burst into our camp declaring his piss is the source of eternal life! He explained that while he was relieving himself in the woods, he had a vision of a magnificent female that told him that the key to eternal life flows from within him. Lol😅 true story

  • @screechingtoad2683
    @screechingtoad2683 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +49

    Alchemy may be pseudoscience, but it laid the foundation for true chemistry

    • @SpidermanandhisAmazingFriends
      @SpidermanandhisAmazingFriends 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      ​@horse433
      The premise behind alchemy is utter hooey.

    • @SpidermanandhisAmazingFriends
      @SpidermanandhisAmazingFriends 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      @horse433
      Yeah you're right, I shouldn't poo-poo alchemists for all their progress on the philosopher's stone.

    • @screechingtoad2683
      @screechingtoad2683 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

      @horse433 while their theories were wrong, their experiments led to chemistry

    • @BalthasarCarduelis
      @BalthasarCarduelis 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      ​@@screechingtoad2683alchemy and chemistry is literally the same word (in the same way that "walks" and "walked" is the same word) and yet technocratic bootlickers still have cognitive dissonance between their Year Zero myth and the observable concatenation of learning.

    • @screechingtoad2683
      @screechingtoad2683 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@BalthasarCarduelis good point

  • @MadScientist267
    @MadScientist267 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    Dude had him a fascination that the whole town would have known about. There's no way he did this without someone catching on. It isn't like they knew about scrubbers 🤣

    • @naradaian
      @naradaian 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      No one - who couldn't afford a pot to kids in had an opinion that mattered

  • @LittleW00d
    @LittleW00d 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    John Emsley really missed a fantastic opportunity to call his book "The striking and illuminating history of phosphorus"

  • @zaptainkuboom5520
    @zaptainkuboom5520 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    He was always telling people, "pissforus", that's how he came up with with the name

  • @AngelStickman
    @AngelStickman 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    This is my favorite chemistry history story to tell!

  • @luizmenezes9971
    @luizmenezes9971 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +13

    So, alchemists failed at converting lead to gold, but succeeded at converting piss into war crimes.
    That's good enough for me.

  • @Jermsy212
    @Jermsy212 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +13

    So Ricky’s dad was just an alchemist collecting all his piss jugs…

    • @TomTomlin-d2u
      @TomTomlin-d2u 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      Fakn way she goes. Lmao

    • @davidripley2916
      @davidripley2916 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Now I wanna build a piss Catapult

    • @DoctorRed79
      @DoctorRed79 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Greasy…

  • @benjamindejonge3624
    @benjamindejonge3624 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

    Piss poor, means you sold your urine for money to the weekly collector

  • @Albanian_Accountant
    @Albanian_Accountant หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    This would make an AWESOME dramedy movie plot

  • @kjamison5951
    @kjamison5951 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    Boyle: “How didst thou make this phosphorus, good and kindly sir?”
    Brandt: “It was a piece of piss.”

    • @davidripley2916
      @davidripley2916 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      You're on the Naughty Step for that one. . . 😂

    • @Flint-Dibble-the-Don
      @Flint-Dibble-the-Don 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      "Super easy. Barely an inconvenience."

  • @WowEureka
    @WowEureka 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    "Man, why are you drinking so much, you've had like 100 bottles now, why?"
    "SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION!"
    :/

  • @bxdanny
    @bxdanny 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    I had wondered why the coatings on CRT screens were called phosphors, when they don't necessarily contain phosphorus. This "light-bearing"meaning must be the reason.

  • @Lily_the_puggle
    @Lily_the_puggle หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I can't believe I watched a 20-minute video of guys fighting over how to cook piss.

  • @wilhelmschmidt7240
    @wilhelmschmidt7240 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

    I always saw alchemy as a primitive precursor to chemistry. It also uses one of the most fundamental techniques of human discovery... F around and find out.

  • @BernardoTorres-w5e
    @BernardoTorres-w5e 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    What an interesting narration , I nevera had any idea that the history of phosphorus was so interesting. I am from Colombia.

  • @davidturner9783
    @davidturner9783 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Props for saying "Philosopher's Stone" that many times and not saying Harry Potter once.

  • @EamonnO
    @EamonnO หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    This is excellent --great science history which is a subject in itself. A video on James Clark Maxwell and his achievements would be interesting. He is known for his work on electromagnetism but little else is known about his other achievements such as his work on colour.

  • @padalan2504
    @padalan2504 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    3:00 It's not unclear, it's a part of the alchemical process, the Nigredo, leaving things to ferment, rot or charring them. Which is then followed by Albedo, the purification process, ie boiling and distilling. The urine stays yellow throughout the process, which could be interpreted as the Citrinitas, which could also be used to describe any sort of chemical reaction. And it resulted in something red, which was assumed to be the mythical Rubedo. The poor man likely thought that he has gotten further than anyone else in the goal of making the Magnum opus.

    • @Jordan-o6w1f
      @Jordan-o6w1f 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Urine turns black pretty quickly when left out.

  • @PoorMansChemist
    @PoorMansChemist 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    What an excellent video!!! Well done, sir!!!

  • @happyvirus6590
    @happyvirus6590 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

    4:27 You could say he continued his *gold-digging*

  • @M.scott_90
    @M.scott_90 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Love the storytelling and vocal presence! 🎉

  • @auntiecarol
    @auntiecarol 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    Fun fact: Brandt rhymes with lant (an English word meaning "stale urine"), derived from the Old English "hland", which is what we called 'urine' before those pesky Normans invaded and made use all start using fancy Latinate words.

    • @LH-rr1iz
      @LH-rr1iz 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      That why we got the name lanter?

  • @johnhuldt
    @johnhuldt 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Great video. Thank you!

  • @camgrl69
    @camgrl69 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

    I can hear the Sam o nella background music omg

  • @fastloris
    @fastloris 11 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Great telling, appreciate it.

  • @TnT_F0X
    @TnT_F0X 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Considering Zoologists have seen an orangutan mix plants and rub it in a wound... yeah I think we've been studying chemistry for a while.

  • @voornaam3191
    @voornaam3191 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    That changing metals into gold reminds me of our childhood dog. It was a Rutherford retriever, and no matter how tiny the balls you threw away, it would ALWAYS find them and bring them back.

  • @kjamison5951
    @kjamison5951 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    King Charles II: “Phosphorus is made by reducing urine and boiling it at very high temperatures? Are you taking the piss?”

  • @reatcas
    @reatcas 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    13:00 never tell anyone what you know that's the first of two rules for success

  • @xCoolMrDimas
    @xCoolMrDimas 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Love the content, keep it up!

    • @GrahamCarr-pb4fu
      @GrahamCarr-pb4fu 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Great Reply !! We've sent you a 3 Litre container of it from our Laboratory !!!

  • @ulisesdiale4004
    @ulisesdiale4004 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    17:04 in some hispanic countries we call the matches 'fósforos' which is the same word for the element itself

  • @atrumluminarium
    @atrumluminarium 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    3:14 sounds like the NileRed video😅

  • @sean..L
    @sean..L 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Chrysocolla is a rock you sometimes see at gem shows.

  • @karlm9584
    @karlm9584 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    My father told me this story when I was 3 or 4. It led to some interesting and very smelly "experiments" involving various jars and bottles of piss stashed around the house to be forgotten and rediscovered months later. In later years, I was very good at chemistry and almost studied it at university.

  • @zephyrna6249
    @zephyrna6249 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    I cant get over the idea of dozens of very serious, very wealthy men, spending hundreds of hours boiling piss in secret.

    • @user-to9ge8ii9n
      @user-to9ge8ii9n 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      The more the world changes, the more it stays the same.

  • @NikolaiGuliaeff
    @NikolaiGuliaeff 2 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

    It just goes to show you that you can't stay piss poor forever.

  • @shruggzdastr8-facedclown
    @shruggzdastr8-facedclown 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    He discovered Mountain Dew!!
    😏

    • @josejaimes-ramos1546
      @josejaimes-ramos1546 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Phosphoric acid is an ingredient in Mountain Dew.

  • @thebush6077
    @thebush6077 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I like how people back then were just making up their own quests. "Yeah I have no idea if this is even possible, but I think it is... I'm gonna call the thing I'm looking for the philosopher's stone.... Also, idk, it also give immortality or something I guess..."

  • @happyvirus6590
    @happyvirus6590 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

    2:14 *sad gallium noises*

    • @wrjtung3456
      @wrjtung3456 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      It needs higher temperatures than mercury and wasn’t discovered at the time

    • @ItzTheDragon
      @ItzTheDragon 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      It’s solid at room temperature, melts at slightly higher such as the warmth from your hand

  • @FontaineLovers
    @FontaineLovers 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    imagine the millions of incredible untold stories of unknown alchemists around the world lost to history and never get the chance to get rocorded.

  • @f_r_e_d
    @f_r_e_d 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

    who painted 0:10?

    • @ladyJustis
      @ladyJustis 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      If you zoom in there is a name in the left bottom corner. Starts with 'n'?
      I see a human skull 😮

    • @f_r_e_d
      @f_r_e_d 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      @@ladyJustis it's: John William Waterhouse: The Magic Circle - 1886

    • @adam.not.sandler
      @adam.not.sandler 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      John William Waterhouse

    • @notPSOJosh
      @notPSOJosh 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Me

    • @exoticfanta
      @exoticfanta 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I did

  • @krautismo
    @krautismo 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    FYI the putrification of elements / the decomposition of matter is not uncommon practice. It is thought to breaking the ingredients down to their prime elements from where something new can be formed, i.e gold

  • @soundcloud938
    @soundcloud938 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    great vid m8

  • @BipTunia_Microtonal_Cats
    @BipTunia_Microtonal_Cats 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    5:05 I feel like that painting (especially adding the gothic background) may have inspired the first sci-fi book, "Frankenstein."

  • @FelonyVideos
    @FelonyVideos 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Imagine all the elements that were "right there, under his nose" that he didn't discover...
    (Somewhere in there is a joke about a pot to piss in, aka, potassium.)
    Also, how in the world did he get his hands on 1500 gallons of piss, and keep it a secret? 😂

    • @RalfStephan
      @RalfStephan 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      An elephant can do that in one go.

    • @nickshevlin4063
      @nickshevlin4063 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Urine was readily available back then as it was used A LOT in the leather tanning/curing process. It is where the saying "Piss-poor" comes from as poor people would pee in a pot the sell it to the tanners (and alchemists) "Piss-poor-Pete" and some were "so poor they didn't have a pot to piss in". IF you wondered where those sayings come from, that is it.

  • @luipaardprint
    @luipaardprint 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Fortunately they never realised it required the sacrifice of a large amount of human souls to create a meaningful amount of philosophers stone.

    • @LH-rr1iz
      @LH-rr1iz 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Says who?

  • @nathanwoodruff9422
    @nathanwoodruff9422 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    The bad news is gold doesn't come from other metals. If anyone want to know where gold comes from, look to the periodic table. Gold is always found with silicon. Look to the periodic table to add 79(gold) + 14(silicon) + 1 and let me know what element you come up with. It is the same reason why you always find silver(Ag) in lead(Pb) mines that have an excess of Bromine(Br) gas in them.

    • @void________
      @void________ 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Gold doesn't even come from earth.

    • @nathanwoodruff9422
      @nathanwoodruff9422 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@void________ Oh... Sorry... I forgot... It was the aliens that delivered it here.
      So... Do you know where the aliens got it from and left it here for us to find?

    • @FaceFcuk
      @FaceFcuk 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Gold comes from exploding stars 🌟 aka supernovas 🎉

    • @Jordan-o6w1f
      @Jordan-o6w1f 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      In your equation 79au+14si+1 what is the +1? And what measurement are you using for each of the 79 and 14? How do I get 79 au and 14si? Lastly, are you suggesting that you have discovered a real method of combining elemental solids to transmute them into different elemental solids? This does seem to make sense, needs more investigation but on the surface makes logical sense.

    • @Jordan-o6w1f
      @Jordan-o6w1f 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@void________everything on Earth comes from Earth. Everything. (No response necessary, I don't really want to talk to you)

  • @legday1337
    @legday1337 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    3:18 Hennig must have been the loveliest neighbor to have at that time

    • @naradaian
      @naradaian 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Henning is alive and well

  • @lanFred-js8bt
    @lanFred-js8bt 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.

    • @magickmarck
      @magickmarck 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Thank you

    • @GarthWatkins-th3jt
      @GarthWatkins-th3jt 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I needed this. Thank you is insufficient, but there you go, it's all I have.

  • @Anton-ji4td
    @Anton-ji4td 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    The morale of this story is, if you are going to buy a house do not buy it near a Phosphorus factory as you might not be able to sell it or open the windows in the height of a very hot summer.

  • @ketas
    @ketas 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    i bet it was nice smell to boil 7 tons of sour piss

  • @Anton-ji4td
    @Anton-ji4td 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    At 2m57secs: So, where did he get 1500 gallons of piss?

  • @oldschoolman1444
    @oldschoolman1444 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    The plants in my yard like urine! 😊

    • @PodcastOnTheSpectrum
      @PodcastOnTheSpectrum 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Put 1500 gallons on them see how well they do

    • @trevormcintosh5564
      @trevormcintosh5564 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@PodcastOnTheSpectrumthey aren't Olympic swimmers lol

    • @dstrbd223
      @dstrbd223 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Only a little. Too much and the salt in the urine will kill them. That’s what dog piss turns grass yellow

  • @DevilMaster
    @DevilMaster 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Imagine an alternate history where Boyle interprets the "somewhat that belonged to the body of man" clue in a different way. Imagine that he dismisses the "pee and poo" solution as something immature, and goes for something more sinister: human bones.
    He exhumes bones from a graveyard, grinds them to a powder, mixes the powder with coal, and applies the same dry distillation method. He successfully extracts phosphorus from the hydroxyapatite that makes up the bones. He notices that if phosphorus is set on fire, it cannot be extinguished until all of it is consumed. And he also notices how poisonous it is, both in short term (killing people immediately when administered in large doses) and long term (causing a progressive disease in the jaw following repeated small dose exposition). He dutifully writes all of this in a diary.
    Then, an uneducated person retrieves his diary, and interprets all of it under a religious light, becoming convinced that Boyle was a necromancer who discovered how to bring the fires of hell into the mortal realm.

    • @jamesgizasson
      @jamesgizasson 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Thus, matches are banned as being "tools of the devil", and we live in a world where EVs predate gas lamps. :3

  • @DrHenrik
    @DrHenrik 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    na the weiredest is still that time the usa popped a nuke made and though how awesome it would be if there would be some new stuff in that radioactive could. So two jets collect the top of the mushroom cloud and against all thing holy they discovered two new elements

  • @ragemonkey3163
    @ragemonkey3163 หลายเดือนก่อน

    there were no maggots. Brandt left the urine to condense until it bred worms. This was a reference to the hazy strands of phosphorus that form in concentrated urine. it does not refer to maggots.

  • @RealMoukeycat
    @RealMoukeycat 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    I only clicked the video to see if i could guess what element it was. Im at 6:06 and I'm guessing phosphorous. If I'm wrong I'll have to delete this comment. Edit: Lol. I paused it to comment right at the reveal.

  • @mike62mcmanus
    @mike62mcmanus 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    The wife would have been a detractor, it would make a good monty Python skit...

  • @greenspiraldragon
    @greenspiraldragon 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    You can also make saltpeter for gunpowder from urine.

  • @Brantdrangus8489
    @Brantdrangus8489 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Great video. I like the lab drawings.

  • @realdragon
    @realdragon 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Honestly I find it weirder it took so long for someone to boil piss

    • @LordMondegrene
      @LordMondegrene 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Witches had been boiling pins in urine for centuries. Somehow, it didn't destroy their enemies. But they kept doing it, probably to keep neighbors away.

    • @LordMondegrene
      @LordMondegrene 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Witches boiled pins in urine for centuries. It didn't kill their enemies, but it kept neighbors away, so they kept at it. 😂😂😂

  • @TheNimaid
    @TheNimaid 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I'm sure if those fellows looking for his secret spoke to his neighbors, they would have gotten a pretty good hint at what substance it was extracted from.

  • @josephclayson2714
    @josephclayson2714 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    What do we want?
    A series on the history of molecular biology!
    When do we want it?
    Now!!!!!!

  • @SyIe12
    @SyIe12 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    👍⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐EXCELLENT AS ALWAYS, THANK YOU

  • @johndee2990
    @johndee2990 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Failing Upwards is such a Great Discovery

  • @azilelaufer9831
    @azilelaufer9831 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    That was Great thanks!

  • @Delta7Smith
    @Delta7Smith 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    My former understanding of the discovery was the urine was first purified until maggots were present(I've been unable to accomplish this step), then it was mixed with diatomaceous earth and heated vigorously for hours

  • @Voodoomaria
    @Voodoomaria 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I remember this story from school, an alchemist figured since all gols is yellow, everything yellow must contain gold, so he reasoned if he boiled down his own urine, he'd get rich.
    This led to the discovery of phospherous, and the founding of the first HOA formed by his neighbours to force his eviction.
    The last part was a joke obviously, BUT can you imagine that SMELL?
    One of my roommates had a cat that P*ssed on the stove burner and we didn't discover it until the burner was lit [gas stove].
    The stink cleared the house.