The question of the first discovered element is complex because the meaning of “discovery” has changed dramatically over time. Before modern chemistry, substances were simply “known” if they could be seen or used in their pure form. Scientific discovery requires isolation and identification as a fundamental, indivisible substance. The answer depends on whether one considers materials known to ancient civilizations or those first isolated under a modern scientific framework.
Elements Known Since Antiquity
Several elements were in use for thousands of years, long before their fundamental nature was understood. These materials were found in their native state or easily extracted from ores using simple techniques. Gold, silver, and copper were prized from prehistory because they frequently occur pure in nature.
Other elements, including iron, lead, tin, mercury, sulfur, and carbon (as charcoal), were also known and utilized by early civilizations. Knowledge of these substances was empirical, based on physical properties like color and malleability. These ancient materials were considered “elements” only in the philosophical sense, often associated with the Greek concepts of earth, air, fire, and water.
Establishing the Modern Definition of an Element
The transition from alchemical speculation to chemical science required a new definition of an element. Robert Boyle, an Anglo-Irish chemist, provided this theoretical shift in his 1661 work, The Sceptical Chymist. Boyle argued against the long-held ideas that all matter consisted of four or three principles.
He proposed that a true element is a substance that cannot be decomposed into simpler substances by any known chemical means. This definition established the operational criteria for discovery: a substance had to be physically separated and proven irreducible. This framework allowed scientists to actively search for and confirm new fundamental materials, distinguishing them from compounds and mixtures.
Phosphorus The First Isolated Element
Based on the modern criteria of isolation and identification, the German alchemist Hennig Brand is credited with the first true discovery of a new element in 1669. While searching for the philosopher’s stone in Hamburg, Brand attempted to distill gold from human urine. His alchemical process involved boiling thousands of liters of urine to a thick paste and heating it intensely with sand.
The result was not gold, but a waxy, white substance that glowed eerily in the dark. Brand initially called the substance “cold fire” due to its unique property of chemiluminescence—a glow produced by reacting with oxygen. He named the substance phosphorus, derived from the Greek word phosphoros, meaning “light-bearer.”
The discovery was remarkable because, unlike the metals of antiquity, phosphorus does not exist freely in nature and required a complex chemical process to be isolated. Brand was the first individual to isolate and document a substance that fit the newly established definition of a chemical element.
Early Elements Isolated After Phosphorus
The isolation of phosphorus led to the discovery of other elements soon following. Although the isolation of arsenic is sometimes cited as occurring earlier (around 1250), the lack of clear documentation makes Brand’s phosphorus the first undisputed, named, and isolated elemental discovery.
As chemical techniques improved in the 18th century, the isolation of other elements accelerated. Cobalt, for example, was isolated by Swedish chemist Georg Brandt around 1735. Platinum was first clearly identified in the same year by Antonio de Ulloa.
These later discoveries benefited from the new scientific approach, focusing on the systematic identification of fundamental substances rather than alchemical transmutation. Phosphorus holds its historical place as the first element isolated and documented through a definitive chemical process after the modern definition of an element was established.