Georg Brandt (26 June 1694 – 29 April 1768) was a Swedish

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

and

mineralogist Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical mineralogy, optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifact (archaeology), artifacts. Specific s ...

who discovered

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. ...

c. 1735. He was the first person to discover a metal unknown in ancient times. He is also known for exposing fraudulent

alchemists Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

operating during his lifetime.

Biography

Brandt was born in Riddarhyttan, Skinnskatteberg parish,

Västmanland Västmanland ( or ) is a historical Swedish province, or , in middle Sweden. It borders Södermanland, Närke, Värmland, Dalarna and Uppland. Västmanland means "West Man Land" or, less literally, "The Land of the Western Men", where the "we ...

to Jurgen Brandt, a mineowner and pharmacist, and Katarina Ysing. He was professor of chemistry at

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

University, and died in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. He was able to show that cobalt was the source of the blue color in glass, which previously had been attributed to the

bismuth Bismuth is a chemical element; it has symbol Bi and atomic number 83. It is a post-transition metal and one of the pnictogens, with chemical properties resembling its lighter group 15 siblings arsenic and antimony. Elemental bismuth occurs nat ...

found with cobalt. He died on 29 April 1768 of prostate cancer. About 1741 he wrote: "As there are six kinds of metals, so I have also shown with reliable experiments... that there are also six kinds of half-metals: a new half-metal, namely Cobalt regulusRegulus: the more or less impure mass of metal formed beneath the slag during the smelting and reducing of ores.
Merriam-Webster dictionary
/ref> in addition to Mercury, Bismuth,

Zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

, and the reguluses of

Antimony Antimony is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Sb () and atomic number 51. A lustrous grey metal or metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient t ...

and

Arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol As and atomic number 33. It is a metalloid and one of the pnictogens, and therefore shares many properties with its group 15 neighbors phosphorus and antimony. Arsenic is not ...

". He gave six ways to distinguish bismuth and cobalt which were typically found in the same

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically including metals, concentrated above background levels, and that is economically viable to mine and process. The grade of ore refers to the concentration ...

s: #Bismuth fractures while Cobalt is more like a true metal. #The regulus of Shetz fuses with flint and fixed alkali giving a blue glass known as zaffera, sasre, or

smalt Cobalt glass—known as "smalt" when ground as a pigment—is a deep blue coloured glass prepared by including a cobalt compound, typically cobalt oxide or cobalt carbonate, in a glass melt. Cobalt is a very intense colouring agent and very litt ...

. Bismuth does not. #Bismuth melts easily and if kept melted, calcinates forming a yellow powder. #Bismuth amalgamates with Mercury; the regulus of Cobalt does not at all. #Bismuth dissolved in nitric acid and with aqua regia and gives a white precipitate when put in pure water. The regulus of Cobalt needs alkalies to precipitate, and then forms dark or black precipitates.

Notes

References

External links

Georg Brandt
by Uno Boklund in: Charles C. Gillispie, ed., ''Dictionary of Scientific Biography'' (New York, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970), vol. 2, pages 421-422 {{DEFAULTSORT:Brandt, George 1694 births 1768 deaths People from Skinnskatteberg Municipality 18th-century Swedish chemists Swedish mineralogists Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Discoverers of chemical elements Cobalt