Did Renaissance Alchemist Tycho Brahe Discover Tungsten Two Centuries Ahead of Its Time?

Renowned Renaissance alchemist Tycho Brahe may have been dabbling with a rare element that was not supposed to have been formally discovered until nearly two centuries after the famous astronomer’s death, according to a new chemical analysis of artifacts recovered from the ruins of his laboratory. Although the element may only have been accidentally present in his lab, there is the possibility that Brahe may have isolated the material, known today as tungsten, before its official discovery in the eighteenth century.

Although he is more famous for his discoveries in the field of astronomy, Tyge Ottesen Brahe—Tycho Brahe for short—also studied the field of alchemy, a practice that combined spiritual concepts with the science we now know as chemistry. Although he wasn’t interested in seeking to turn base metals into gold, Brahe combined his alchemical works with medical practices in an attempt to treat common ailments of his day, such as leprosy and syphilis, and had also prescribed a treatment for plague to his patron, Rudolph II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

Unfortunately, few of Brahe’s alchemical recipes have survived to the present day: his laboratory and observatory, Uraniborg, was demolished shortly after his death in 1601, and restoration attempts of the facility were not launched until 1985. Shards of glass and ceramic determined to have been used in his lab were recovered during archeological digs conducted at the site of the observatory’s garden between 1988 and 1990.

A recent chemical analysis of these shards, conducted at the University of Southern Denmark, revealed the presence of enriched antimony, copper, gold, lead, mercury, nickel, tin, tungsten and zinc. Most of these elements were typically used by alchemists in Brahe’s time, especially gold and mercury, of which were commonly used as ingredients in treatments for a wide variety of ailments.

“But tungsten is very mysterious,” remarked Kaare Lund Rasmussen, Professor Emeritus and an expert in archaeometry with the University of Southern Denmark’s Department of Physics, Chemistry, and Pharmacy. “Tungsten had not even been described at that time, so what should we infer from its presence on a shard from Tycho Brahe’s alchemy workshop?”

Tungsten, a rare metal that is essential to modern industry, medicine and science, would not be formally isolated and described until 1783 by Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele, 182 years after Brahe’s death. However, the effects of the metal appear to have been described by Georgius Agricola in 1546, when the German metallurgist was attempting to smelt tin that contained tungsten, calling the substance “wolfram”, German for wolf froth, referring to the mysterious element’s capacity to consume the tin, devouring it like a wolf.

“Maybe Tycho Brahe had heard about this and thus knew of tungsten’s existence,” Lund Rasmussen speculated. “But this is not something we know or can say based on the analyses I have done. It is merely a possible theoretical explanation for why we find tungsten in the samples.”

While it is likely that the tungsten present in Brahe’s laboratory was an unintended byproduct of his alchemical work, there remains the possibility that the Renaissance scientist was following Agricola’s work to discover another element that could be used in his medical treatments, ahead of his time in attempting to isolate the rare substance.

“It may seem strange that Tycho Brahe was involved in both astronomy and alchemy, but when one understands his worldview, it makes sense. He believed that there were obvious connections between the heavenly bodies, earthly substances, and the body’s organs,” explained Poul Grinder-Hansen, senior researcher and museum curator of the National Museum of Denmark. Grinder-Hansen was involved with Lund Rasmussen’s research, providing historical context for Brahe’s practices.

“Thus, the sun, gold, and the heart were connected, and the same applied to the moon, silver, and the brain; Jupiter, tin, and the liver; Venus, copper, and the kidneys; Saturn, lead, and the spleen; Mars, iron, and the gallbladder; and Mercury, mercury, and the lungs. Minerals and gemstones could also be linked to this system, so emeralds, for example, belonged to Mercury.”