Hennig Brand

All right.

Number one, Hennig Brand.

Hennig? Hennig Brand.

B-R-A-N-D?

Mm-hmm.

So it wasn't just, you know, crackpots.

Well, you could call Isaac Newton a crackpot, but anyway, So, alchemists often operated under the principle of signatures, believing that the physical appearance of a substance, its color, weight, or luster, often included clues to its hidden miraculous potential.

Brand's specific hypothesis was that certain materials found in nature held a concentrated vital force.

I love white hot action

... today's hero is a man called Hennig Brand.

Uh, he lived from somewhere around sixteen thirty to sort of sixteen ninety-two-ish.

We don't really know.

They use it now for fertilizers, but didn't do anything-

Oh, it's got all sorts of uses now, Gav.

Let's salute Hennig Brand.

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