Solved cryptogram
White phosphorus glows in the dark all by itself, and the name means bearer of light.
Chemistry Facts, sourced to Royal Society of Chemistry.
What it means
The glow is a slow reaction with oxygen in the air rather than stored light being released, so it is chemiluminescence rather than phosphorescence, despite the element having lent its name to the second word. It was isolated in 1669 by a German alchemist boiling down urine in search of gold, which makes it the first element with a documented discoverer.
The claim comes from Royal Society of Chemistry, and the page it comes from was read on 2026-08-27 to confirm it still says this.
This is not the kind of claim that goes out of date, which is why it was set as a puzzle rather than a fact with a shelf life.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 68 letters over 20 different ones, graded medium.
- SourceRoyal Society of Chemistry
- CollectionChemistry Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length68 letters, 20 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 77 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistryhard, 73 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 71 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 74 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 74 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 79 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 74 letters
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