Galaxy Magazine (August 1955) by Galaxy

Author:Galaxy
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 1955-08-08T16:00:00+00:00

«*

IN OLDER books, you may •*■ find a "didymium" listed, which was just based on insuffi-cient knowledge. Carl, Count Auer von Welsbach, the Austrian chemist, established that there were two elements he named praseodymium ("green twin") and neodymium ("new twin"). The word didymium meant "twin," too; it was supposed to be the "twin of lanthanum."

No. 61 was called "illinium" (from Illinois) at first; the definite identification and the name prometheum originated at Oak Ridge. Nos. 70 and 71 were discovered independently and nearly simultaneously by Auer von Welsbach of Austria and Georges Urbain of France. The

proposed by Auer von Welsbach (but not accepted) were aide-baranium for No. 70 and cassiopeium for No. 71. The now accepted names are both based on place names, Ytterby in Sweden and Lutetia, the original Latin name of Paris.

The next element above the rare earths is No. 72, hafnium. There never was any trouble with the name; the amusing thing is that it was coined by a Hun-garian (Georg von Hevesy) who was then working in Copenhagen, which is Kjobenhavn in Danish — at least most of the time, since they use two forms.

Now again things will go

smoothly for a while: No. 73, tantalum; No. 74 — sorry, I talked too soon — No. 74 is the element with the symbol W, standing for wolfram, formerly known by its Swedish name of tungsten, now officially abolished. Then No. 75, rhenium (from Latin Rhenus, the Rhine); No. 76, osmium; No. 77, iridium; No. 78, platinum; No. 79, gold (the symbol Au is from the Latin name aurum); No. 80, mercury (symbol Hg from its old name Hydrargium); No. 81, thallium; No. 82, lead (symbol Pb is from

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Latin name plumbum); No. 83, bismuth; No. 84, polonium.

No. 85 was called alabamine (from Alabama) for some time,

but the name is now astatine (from the Greek astasia, meaning "unsteady") and the symbol At, the reason being that of all of its isotopes known, the "longest-lived" has a half-life of about eight hours.

No. 86 is radon, symbol Rn; its first name immediately after discovery was "radium emanation." Since this was a clumsy word, the name "niton" was proposed, but radon was chosen.

No. 87 is now francium; an earlier claim to its discovery had proposed the name virginium. The symbol for francium is Fa. No. 88 is radium; No. 89, actinium; No. 90, thorium; No.

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