@michaelobrien9053
Oh yes, the piss boiling man. I’m sure his neighbors loved him.
@No-uc6fg
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.
@quantumview8151
The image of an entire factory that boils piss is nauseating
@DonnyHootieHoot
Sounds like Monty Python logic. If piss is yellow and gold is yellow, they MUST be the same thing! Boil the piss!!
@seekfractals
"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."
@stickyfox
My chemistry professor called phosphorus the only element derived from its chemical symbol.
@amosbackstrom5366
"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?
@EMC273
This is such a fascinating and hilarious story of the discovery of phosphorus. Keep doing the good work, my king.
@jmchez
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.
@KnockKnockShows
Next time I'm caught bottling my urine I'll play the 'It's for science' card.
@splotters
Discovered in Dresden and used to destroy Dresden.
@NonBinary_Star
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
@bunsenn5064
I love how arguably the weirdest discovery of an element was also the very first chemical element discovered in the modern era.
@Jo-JoandTaffy
That guy really just didnt want to tell anyone that he liked playing with piss.
@aurelianocaballero2232
Amazing story! It answered two questions: how phosphorus was found and why alchemists are unpopular.
@Aurochs330
I love these videos. Every single one is an obscure story that I would’ve otherwise never heard about. Cheers!
@Ethyn_Jackson
I'm ashamed to admit there's a mountain dew bottle in my room synthesizing some phosphorus.
@U.Inferno
I can turn Iron into gold by throwing a shit ton of Iodine at it really really fast
@truthtoad
Is this where the phrase "pissing away a fortune" came from?
@Chemistorian