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.