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A sign for phosphorus, isolated from urine in 1669.
Also known as: Phosphorus sign, Cold fire
Phosphorus is the one substance in this set with a firmly dated discovery: Hennig Brand isolated it from urine in 1669 while looking for the philosophers' stone. It glowed in the dark, which caused a sensation.
Denotes phosphorus, isolated by Hennig Brand in Hamburg in 1669 from evaporated urine, in the course of a search for the philosophers' stone.
From 1669
Encoded at U+1F70E ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR PHOSPHORUS.
Contexts: Software
Its persistent glow in the dark without heat was genuinely unexplained at the time and made it a celebrated curiosity long before it was useful.
A vertical stroke with two short horizontal lines crossing it and a small loop at the base.