1694-1768

Swedish chemist best known for discovering cobalt (1742). Brandt systematically investigated arsenic and its compounds (1733) and invented the classification scheme for the semi-metals now called metalloids (1735). He published findings on how to produce sulfuric, nitric, and hydrochloric acids (1741, 1743) and demonstrated that gold dissolves in hot nitric acid and precipitates out when cooled. Brandt actively combated alchemical ideas and devoted his later years to exposing fraudulent transmutations of metals into gold.