In 1969, in order to refine gold, a man spent his savings to buy 5,000 liters of urine, put it at home to boil, was ridiculed as a fool, and as a result, a luminous substance was developed, which was later made into a new type of weapon!
The person who went crazy about extracting gold from urine was Henig Brand of Hamburg, Germany, who in his time caused an alchemical fever and everyone wanted to refine gold.
However, under everyone's obsession with "turning stones into gold", the penniless Brand had to find another way, and after discovering that the color of urine was very similar to gold, he boldly tried.
Soon, on the streets of Hamburg, there was always a strange madman, who went to every bathroom and asked the people who came to Xiaojie: "Can you do me a favor and urinate into the bucket?" ”
People passing by thought Brand was a neuropathy and took a detour, and some bored people would even spit in the bucket, making Brand's collection of urine for the day in vain.
Some people suggested: "It's better to let relatives and friends help, collect the urine of relatives and friends!" Brand shook his head, saying that he had asked for help from his family before, but the pee of relatives and friends was simply not enough, and his wife did not approve of his lack of work, spending all the money on alchemy experiments.
The money at home has been almost spent, and now it is empty-handed, how can this be done? Brand walked down the street dejectedly.
Just when Brand was at a loss, the sound of soldiers' drills entered his ears, and he looked up, only to find that he was already standing next to a military camp.
A thought popped up in the messy mind: "There are so many men in the army, and their urine is not very much?" ”
A sneer appeared at the corner of Brand's mouth, and he hurriedly went to consult with the commander of the barracks, and as expected, the commander let people throw him out.
But Brand was unwilling and went to the barracks again, and learned that Brand was buying urine in order to refine gold, and the commander had a look of disbelief on his face. Under Brand's persistent pleading, the commander finally agreed.
In this way, Brand mortgaged his entire net worth and bought 5,000 liters of urine, and then began his own experiment.
The first time, he mixed sand and urine, then heated it, only to extract a pile of black stuff without any gold.
The second time, he adjusted the temperature and proportion, and then added a yellow substance, which, after heating, made a black substance similar to the first time.
The two trials took a long time, but to no avail, and Brand stopped what he was doing and stared blankly out the window, while his wife walked in and carried the food to the door, only to be smoked back by a smell of urine.
Brand in the room was still thinking about the reason for the failure of the experiment, and an hour later, he seemed to have found the crux of the problem, looking at his experimental equipment, Brand's spirit was lifted again, he took a large bucket of urine again, re-optimized the ratio of urine to sand, put them in a glass box, and raised the heating temperature again until they became viscous.
Originally thought that this experiment would be successful, when all the liquid and water were evaporated, Roland was disappointed to find that he did not see gold, but saw a bleak thing.
Brand decided to continue heating, but just then, a white light flashed in front of him, and then he saw a cloud of smoke.
Brand was curious, picked up the pliers, and carefully removed the dull thing, but did not expect that this thing was ignited again, and it would spontaneously combust.
It was a completely new material, and although no gold had been found, Brand was ecstatic and named it "Icy Nocta Luca", which translates Chinese name as icy luminescence.
Brand thought he was close to success, and he decided to continue his research. But at this time, an unexpected thing happened, due to the shortage of cash, the family's money was used up, and three-quarters of the completed experiments had to be suspended, and he could only publish the results of the phased experiments. Then, in his way, someone extracted the "phosphorus".
The person who extracted the "phosphorus" was also a master of alchemy, his name was Robert Boyle, and unlike Brand, Robert was also a master of chemistry.
After discovering phosphorus, Robert boldly mixed phosphorus and sulfur together, which could be ignited with a slight rubbing.
In 1827, German chemists used the characteristics of white phosphorus to rub and ignite to make a widely used match, but because white phosphorus is too toxic, someone later invented a match called "red phosphorus". The appearance of matches brought great convenience to people's daily lives, so Brand and Robert were both admired by later generations.
Everything has two sides, and the appearance of white phosphorus is no exception. Unexpectedly, a few years later, white phosphorus evolved into a new weapon on the battlefield.
During World War II, in order to deal with the Japanese stationed on the Pacific islands, the United States invented an incendiary bomb called "Hellfire", which quickly caused great damage to the Japanese army.
As long as this incendiary bomb is thrown onto the battlefield, clothes and skin will burn, it will not be extinguished at all, and even if it jumps into the water, it will be burned to ashes by white phosphorus.
In addition to these, white phosphorus bombs also have a deadly place, that is, once they explode, they will release a toxic gas, which once inhaled, will cause people to lose consciousness and lead to acute necrosis of the liver.
During World War II, many soldiers were injured by white phosphorus bombs, which were also added to the banned list after the war.
War is cruel, but the most primitive purpose of studying white phosphorus is for the welfare of mankind, but no one thought that it would eventually become a big killer in the battlefield, which has to make people feel a little regretful.
