Untitled - Ritter Illustration

he Lost Elements
he Lost Elements
he Periodic Table’s Shadow Side
Marco Fontani, Mariagrazia Costa, and Mary Virginia Orna
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fontani, Marco, 1969–
he lost elements : the periodic table’s shadow side / Marco Fontani, Mariagrazia Costa,
and Mary Virginia Orna.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978–0–19–938334–4 (alk. paper)
1. Chemical elements. 2. Chemical elements—History. 3. Periodic law—History.
4. Chemistry—Nomenclature—History. 5. Chemistry—Humor. I. Costa, Mariagrazia.
II. Orna, Mary Virginia. III. Title. IV. Title: Periodic table’s shadow side.
QD467.F66 2014
546'.8—dc23
2014009191
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
It is appropriate to recall the dedication
that, many years ago, I wrote on the manuscript of my bachelor’s thesis;
for this reason, I renew it with afection:
“To my parents: you were the lions; I have only roared.”
—Marco Fontani
To my beloved nephews,
may they all be attracted to Science.
—Mariagrazia Costa
To Maria Lucia (Grazia) Pulaccini,
my inest teacher and most beloved mentor.
—Mary Virginia Orna
Contents
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xvii
Note to the Reader xxi
Introduction xxiii
Why Collect into One Volume the Discoveries of Elements that Have
Been Shown to be Erroneous or Have Been Forgotten? xxiii
How “an Element” Became a “Chemical Element” xxiv
Is here Any Order to the Discoveries of the Elements? xxviii
he Development of the Periodic Table xxx
Part I: Before 1789: Early Errors and Early Elements
Prologue to Part I 1
I.1. he Beginning of a Long Series of Scientiic Blunders 3
I.1.1. Terra Nobilis 3
I.1.2. Siderum and Hydrosiderum 3
I.1.3. Sydneium or Australium 4
I.1.4. he Element hat Breathes 6
I.1.5. he Birth of Homeopathy 7
I.2. he Elements Hidden by Alternative Names 12
I.2.1. Metallum Problematicum or Tellurium 12
I.2.2. Ochroite or Cerium 13
I.2.3. Ceresium or Palladium 13
I.2.4. Erythronium, Panchromium or Vanadium 14
Part II: 1789–1869: From Lavoisier to Mendeleev: he First Errors at the Dawn
of the Concept of the Chemical Element
Prologue to Part II 19
II.1. Analytical Methodology from Lavoisier to Mendeleev 21
II.1.1. Blowpipe Analysis 22
II.1.2. Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis 23
II.1.3. Electrolysis 23
II.1.4. Emission Spectroscopy 24
II.2. he Elements of the Kingdom of Naples 27
II.2.1. Ruprecht and Tondi: Two Metallurgists Without Metals 27
II.2.2. Playing Bingo with Five Elements 28
II.2.3. he Extraction Procedure of the New Metals 29
II.2.4. Right or Wrong, Was Tondi the Victim of a Sworn Enemy? 29
II.2.5. he Elements that Replaced hose of Tondi 30
vii
v iii
Contents
II.2.6. Possible Present-Day Interpretations 31
II.2.7. Revolution Ofers a Second Career Possibility 33
II.3. Austrium: One Element, Two Elements, hree Elements, and Finally, Zero
Elements 36
II.3.1. he First Fleeting Attempt to Name an Element Austrium 36
II.3.2. Austrium: A Posthumous Element 36
II.3.3. he “Austrian Element” of a Czech Chemist 38
II.3.4. A hird “Split” for Bohuslav Brauner 41
II.4. he Return of the Olympians: Silene, Aridium, Saturnum, Pelopium,
Dianium, Neptunium, and Plutonium 43
II.4.1. Silene 43
II.4.2. Aridium 44
II.4.3. Saturnum 45
II.4.4. Pelopium 46
II.4.5. Dianium 47
II.4.6. Neptunium 48
II.4.7. Plutonium 49
II.5. he Unfortunate Afair of a Student of Kant: A Career Soldier, but a
Chemist by Passion 53
II.5.1. Niccolanum 53
II.5.2. he Road from Oblivion 54
II.6. André-Marie Ampère Bursts onto the Chemistry Scene 56
II.6.1. “Phtore” 56
II.7. Cadmium: “Bone of Contention” Among Chemical Elements 59
II.7.1. A Related Discovery Increases the Confusion: Vestium 60
II.8. A Fireproof Family of Chemists 62
II.8.1. Chemistry as the Common Denominator 62
II.8.2. he Most Improbable of the Chemical Elements 63
II.9. A Bridge of False Hopes Between Divinity and False Elements 65
II.9.1. Crodonium 65
II.9.2. Wodanium 66
II.9.3. False Elements Exchanged for Another False Element 67
II.9.4. Ptene 69
II.9.5. Donarium 70
II.10. Gahnium, Polinium, and Pluranium 73
II.10.1. Gahnium 73
II.10.2. Polinium and Pluranium 73
II.11. Aberdonia and the “Sweet” Map of Oblivion 77
II.11.1. Donium 77
II.11.2. Treenium 78
II.11.3. he Discovery of an Already Known Element? 79
II.11.4. he Sweet Epilogue Leaves a Bitter Taste in the Mouth 80
II.12. he Brief Parentheses of Four Misleading Elements 82
II.12.1. he Fleeting Existence of halium 82
II.12.2. he Meteoric Appearance and Disappearance of Comesium 83
II.12.3. he Mysterious Nature of Ouralium 84
II.12.4. he Brief History of Idunium 85
ix Contents
II.13. Two Imaginary Elements: Sulphurium and Sulfenium 87
II.13.1. Sulphurium 87
II.13.2. he Ancient Modernity of Sulfenium 88
II.14. he Astronomer “Let in the Dark” 91
II.14.1. “Light” as a Means of Chemical Investigation 91
II.14.2. A New Family of Elements from an Old Family of Astronomers 92
II.14.3. Neptunium Is Tempting to a Lot of People 93
II.14.4. Conclusion 93
II.15. Bythium and δ: Two Elements hat Arose (and Vanished) via
Electrolysis 95
II.16. he Ghosts of Unnamed Elements 97
II.16.1. 1799: he Element of Fernandez 97
II.16.2. 1852: he Element of Friedrich August Genth 97
II.16.3. 1852: he Element of Carl Anton Hjalmar Sjögren 98
II.16.4. 1861: he Element of the Brothers August and Friedrich Wilhelm
Dupré 98
II.16.5. 1862: he Element of Charles Frederick Chandler 99
II.16.6. 1864: he Elements of William Nylander and Carl Bischof 101
II.16.7. 1869: he Element of Oscar Loew 102
II.16.8. 1878: he Elements of William Balthasar Gerland 102
II.16.9. 1883: he Element of heodor Eduard Wilm 103
II.16.10. 1897: he Elements of Gethen G. Boucher and F. Ruddock 104
II.16.11. 1904: he Radium Foil of George Frederick Kunz 104
II.16.12. 1908: he Element of Clare de Brereton Evans 105
II.16.13. 1913: he Element of H. C. Holtz 107
Part III: 1869–1913: From the Periodic Table to Moseley’s Law: Rips and Tears
in Mendeleev’s Net
Prologue to Part III 109
III.1. he Forerunners of Celtium and Hafnium: Ostranium, Norium,
Jargonium, Nigrium, Euxenium, Asium, and Oceanium 111
III.2. he Discoveries of the Rare Earths Approach heir End: Philippium,
Element X, Decipium, Mosandrium, Rogerium, and Columbium 119
III.2.1. Philippium and Element X 119
III.2.2. Mosandrium 121
III.2.3. Decipium and the Complexity of Didymium 122
III.2.4. Rogerium and Columbium 124
III.2.5. Conclusion 124
III.3. Lavœsium and Davyum: he Rise and Fall of Two Metals with Illustrious
Names 128
III.3.1. he Discovery of Lavœsium 128
III.3.2. A Residue of Work on Platinum: Davyum 129
III.3.3. Lavœsium Falls into Oblivion 130
III.3.4. Davyum’s Long Agony 131
III.3.5. Conclusion 132
III.4. he Complex Events Surrounding Two “Scandinavian”
Metals: Norwegium and Wasium 135
x
Contents
III.4.1. he Announcement of the Discovery of Norwegium 136
III.4.2. Norwegium 136
III.4.3. A Second Claimant 137
III.4.4. he “Launching” of Wasium 138
III.4.5. he “Shipwreck” of Wasium 138
III.4.6. he Epilogue to Norwegium 139
III.5. Vesbium: An Element from the Center of the Earth 143
III.6. he Curious Case of the Triple Discovery of Actinium 147
III.6.1. he First Announcement of the Discovery of Actinium 147
III.6.2. Confessions of a Violinist 149
III.6.3. Did the Search for Neoactinium Really Delay the Discovery of
Francium? 150
III.6.4. A Cold Shower at the End of a Career 152
III.7. he Improbable Elements of a Country Gentleman 155
III.8. A Bridge Between the Protochemistry of the Pharaohs and the Arab
World: Masrium 158
III.9. he Demon Hidden in the Rare Earths 161
III.9.1. Provincial America Suits the Great Physicist Just Fine 161
III.9.2. he Son of a Protestant Pastor Discovers a Demon 162
III.9.3. he Tragic Conclusion 163
III.10. Dim Lights and Dark Shadows Around “Lucium” 165
III.10.1. Preview of the Discovery 165
III.10.2. he Discovery of the First “Patented” Element 165
III.10.3. he Interventions of Crookes, Fresenius, and Shapleigh 167
III.10.4. Who Was Manipulating Lucium’s Strings from Behind the Scenes? 168
III.11. In the Beginning here Was Didymium . . . and hen Chaos Among the
Rare Earths 171
III.11.1. Didymium: An Awkward Lodger in the f-Family 171
III.11.2. he Splitting of Didymium: Praeseodidymium and Neodidymium 173
III.11.3. A “Colorful” War: Glaucodidymium OR Glaucodymium 173
III.11.4. Claude-Henri Gorceix and Bohuslav Brauner Intervene in the Chaos 174
III.12. Sir William Ramsay: he Most “Noble” of Chemists 178
III.12.1. he First Discoveries 178
III.12.2. A Wrong Track 180
III.12.3. Anomalous Argon: he Element hat Would Not Fit 181
III.12.4. A Pause in Research 182
III.12.5. Radioactivity and the Discovery of Niton 183
III.12.6. A Harvest of Laurels at the Conclusion of His Career 186
III.12.7. Postscript: Krypton II 187
III.13. Confederate and Union Stars in the Periodic Table 191
III.13.1. Introduction 191
III.13.2. Carolinium (and Berzelium) 192
III.13.3. Conclusion 195
III.14. Two Elements from the Depths of Provincial Americana 198
III.15. he Early Successes of the Young Urbain 200
III.15.1. Bauxium 201
III.15.2. From Monium to Victorium and in Pursuit of Ionium and
Incognitum 202
xi Contents
III.15.3. he Element E or X 2 206
III.15.4. he Meta Elements 208
III.15.5. he Elements of Paul Emile (François) Lecoq de Boisbaudran and of
Eugène-Anatole Demarçay 210
III.15.6. he Terbium-I, Terbium-II, and Terbium-III of Welsbach 213
III.16. he Setting of the Element of the “Rising Sun” 219
III.17. he Times Have Changed: From Canadium to Quebecium 224
III.17.1. Who Is Pierre Demers? 226
Part IV: 1914–1939: From Nuclear Classiication to the First
Accelerators: Chemists’ Paradise Lost . . . (and Physicists’ Paradise Regained)
Prologue to Part IV 231
IV.1. From the Eclipse of Aldebaranium and Cassiopeium to the Priority
Conlict Between Celtium and Hafnium 233
IV.1.1. A Collective History: he Rare Earths 233
IV.1.2. he Lights of Paris Hide the Stars 233
IV.1.3. Celtium 235
IV.1.4. Neo-Celtium 235
IV.1.5. Celtium Doesn’t Have a Leg to Stand On 238
IV.2. From the Presumed Inert Elements to hose Lost in the Dead Sea 246
IV.2.1. he Atomic heory of James Moir and the Subelements X and
Zoïkon 246
IV.2.2. he Harmonization of the Elements and the Inert Elements 247
IV.2.3. From England to Prague on the Trail of Element Number 75 249
IV.2.4. On the Banks of the Dead Sea: he First Investigations for the
Identiication of Element 87 251
IV.2.5. Alkalinium 252
IV.2.6. Alkalinium’s Epilogue 257
IV.3. A Success “Transmuted” into Failure 260
IV.3.1. Brevium 260
IV.3.2. Lisonium and Lisottonium 262
IV.3.3. Radio-Brevium and the Missed Discovery of Nuclear Fission 264
IV.3.4. Brevium’s Last Gasp 265
IV.4. From Pleochroic Haloes to the Birth of the Earth 267
IV.4.1. he Origins of the Irish Physicist 267
IV.4.2. Radioactivity Makes Dating of the Earth Possible 268
IV.4.3. Hibernium: An Elusive Element 270
IV.5. If Anyone Has a Sheep, Wolfram Will Eat It 272
IV.5.1. he Neighbors of Molybdenum and Tungsten 274
IV.6. When It Comes to New Discoveries, the More You Err, You End Up
Erring More 278
IV.7. he Radioactive Element of the Hot Springs 284
IV.8. Moseleyum: he Twofold Attempt to Honor a Hero 286
IV.9. he Inorganic Evolution of Element 61: Florentium, Illinium, Cyclonium
and Finally Promethium 289
IV.9.1. Florentium, the Metal of the Florentines 291
IV.9.2. he Americans Discover Illinium 295
x ii
Contents
IV.9.3. Integrity Comes with a Price Tag 299
IV.9.4. Florentium Ends Up in Court 301
IV.9.5. Cyclonium 302
IV.9.6. he Retraction of the Discovery of Florentium 303
IV.9.7. Conclusion 304
IV.9.8. Epilogue 306
IV.10. Masurium: An X-Ray Mystery 310
IV.10.1. he Discovery of Rhenium and Masurium 310
IV.10.2. No More Mention of Masurium 312
IV.10.3. Panormium and Trinacrium 312
IV.10.4. he Ignored and Underrated “Chemikerin” and Her Fission
Hypothesis 315
IV.10.5. Declining Years: Sympathy for Nazism 317
IV.11. he Twilight of the Naturally Occurring Elements: Moldavium,
Sequanium, and Dor 320
IV.11.1. Eka-Cæsium: From Russia to Moldavia, through Virginia 321
IV.11.2. A Digression on X-Ray Wavelength: Precision, Units, and Conversion
Factors 325
IV.11.3. Eka-Rhenium: Cum Caesar in Galliam Venit, Alterius Factionis
Principes Erant Haedui Alterius Sequani. . . 326
IV.11.4. Alabamine and Virginium 327
IV.11.5. Eka-Iodine Assumes the Fanciful Name of Dor 331
IV.11.6. Conclusion 333
IV.12. A Cocktail of Chemistry and Espionage: Helvetium, Anglo-Helvetium,
and a Pair of Indian Elements 337
IV.12.1. Rajendralal De and His Twin Elements: Gourium and Dakin 337
IV.12.2. Walter Minder and Helvetium 339
IV.12.3. Alice Leigh-Smith and Anglo-Helvetium 340
IV.12.4. C. W. Martin and the “Elusive” Parentheses of Leptine 343
IV.12.5. Academic Conlicts with Hulubei, Paneth, and Karlik 343
IV.12.6. Conclusion 345
IV.13. Is Failure a Severe Master? 348
IV.13.1. Eline 348
IV.13.2. Verium 348
Part V : 1939–Present: Beyond Uranium, to the Stars
Prologue to Part V 351
V.1. he Obsession of Physicists with the Frontier: he Case of Ausonium and
Hesperium, Littorium and Mussolinium 353
V.2. Finis Materiae 361
V.2.1. he Island of Nuclear Stability 365
V.2.2. Unfortunate Episodes in the Attribution of the Names of the Elements
Between 101 and 109 366
V.2.3. From Atoms to the Stars 367
V.3. he Search for Primordial Superheavy Elements: Between Scientiic Rigor
and Atomic Fantasy 370
V.4. Names, Names, and Names Again: From A to Zunzenium 375
xiii Contents
V.4.1. he Elements from Neptunium to Mendelevium Seen from Both Sides of
the Iron Curtain 375
V.4.2. he Step Longer than Its Leg: Nobelium 381
V.4.3. Chaos Surrounds Lawrencium, Rutherfordium, Dubnium, and
Seaborgium 383
V.5. Do We Have to Live With Fantasy? Hawkingium and Zunzenium 391
V.6. Naming the Last Five Arrivals in the Great “Family of the Transuranium
Elements” 394
Part VI: No Place for hem in the Periodic Table: Bizarre Elements
Prologue to Part VI 401
VI.1. Inorganic Evolution: From Proto-Elements to Extinct Elements 403
VI.1.1. A Step Backward: Prime Matter, Andronia, and helyke 403
VI.1.2. Pantogen 405
VI.1.3. Protyle 406
VI.1.4. Other heories of Chemical Evolution 408
VI.1.5. he Asteroid Elements 410
VI.1.6. he Painful Finale 412
VI.2. Dazzling Traces of False Suns 415
VI.2.1. he Mirage of the Source of Stellar Energy 415
VI.2.2. he Curious Appearance of Kosmium and Neokosmium 417
VI.3. From the Nonexistent Elements of Mendeleev to the Puzzle of the
Existence of the Ether 419
VI.3.1. Coronium and Its Atermath 421
VI.3.2. he Geocoronium Hypothesis 422
VI.3.3. Etherium: Elementary Gas or Subatomic Particle? 423
VI.4. Anodium and Cathodium 426
VI.5. he Exotic Damarium 428
VI.6. Subtle Is the Air: he Case of Asterium 431
VI.7. Clairvoyance as a Means of Investigating Some “Occult Elements” 435
VI.7.1. A Clairvoyant Investigates the Structure of New and Old Atoms and heir
Position in the Periodic Table 435
VI.7.2. he Last Years of the hree Clairvoyants 440
VI.8. William Harkins’s Element Zero: Neutronium 443
VI.8.1. A Place in the Periodic Table for the Element Without a Nuclear
Charge 444
VI.8.2. From the Nuclear “Alphabet” to the Hypothesis of Neutronium 444
VI.8.3. William Draper Harkins: A Versatile and Obstinate Chemist 446
Part VII : Modern Alchemy: he Dream to Transmute the Elements Has
Always Been with Us
Prologue to Part VII: Alchemy hen and Now 449
VII.1. A Piece of Research Gone Up in Smoke: Decomposition of Tungsten into
Helium 451
VII.2. Transmutations of Mercury into Gold 453
VII.3. Transmutations of Silver into Gold 457
VII.4. Transmutation of Ores 461
x iv
Contents
VII.5. Other Transmutations 464
VII.6. Biological Transmutation 465
VII.7. he Transmutation of Hydrogen into Helium and Neon 468
VII.8. Radiochemistry: A Child of Both Physics and Chemistry 470
VII.8.1. Willy Marckwald Makes His Mark: he Polonium Controversy 471
VII.8.2. William Ramsay “Out of his Element” 472
VII.8.3. Tellurium X 473
VII.9. Transmutation of Lead into Mercury 476
VII.10. Some Like It “Cold” 478
VII.11. Is Cold Fusion Hot Again? 480
Epilogue 480
Appendix: Chronological Finder’s Guide for the Lost Elements 483
Bibliography 493
About he Authors 499
Name Index 501
Lost Element Name Index 515
Subject Index 521
Preface
I have not read as truly interesting a book as this one in decades—dip into it, open it on any
page, and you are immediately drawn into a tale of human ambition, folly, and . . . ingenuity. Mostly chemical, too. Two pages later, there’s another, even more fascinating story.
Primo Levi would have loved this book. here is in it material for a dozen operas. Or is it
reality shows?
Why? his question tugs at me. Why have chemists (and, in time, physicists) focused
so much on the discovery of the elements? When the heart of chemistry, especially today,
but even in the past, is in discovering the semi-ininite variety of molecules and compounds that they can form, why all this nervous energy and hard labor devoted to inding
the building blocks, when the soaring bridge, mosquito, or antibiotic constructed from
those pieces is so much more valuable, both materially and spiritually?
As I relect on the obsessions that drove those people who sought what turned out to
be spurious elements, who spent years at good chemistry (you will learn here of Lorenzo
Fernandes’s and Giorgio Piccardi’s 56,142 fractional crystallizations of 1,200 kg of rare
earth oxalates over 17 years in their search for lorentium), I am led to think of the following potential motives:
1. he desire in us (both religious and scientiic in its origins) to get to the beginning
of things, to the fundamental idea of the element. Even if we know (or believe) that
reductionism may be destructive in practice—that the way to the fundamental strips
away the beauty of what people have created even though lacking knowledge of the
fundamental—we really do want to know what “the natural body or bodies, one or
many, of which all things consist” (Davis, 1931) are.
2. In his satire, “he Dunciad,” Alexander Pope had the goddess of Dullness expose a
new king to “vapours blue” and then tell him, inter alia:
Hence the fool’s Paradise, the statesman’s scheme,
he air-built castle, and the golden dream,
he maid’s romantic wish, the chemist’s lame,
And poet’s vision of eternal fame.
Delusions of fame are the bane of humanity. I think of my old copy of what we called
“he Rubber Book,” the encyclopedia we saved money to buy volume by volume—
these had simplistic, categorical attributions of discovery. As did handbooks of a
100 years ago. As do chemistry webpages today. How nice it would be to have your
name in them! In the dull conines of a smelly laboratory, a scientist could aspire to
embark on the chemical equivalent of the great European voyages of discovery.
xv
xvi
Preface
And, if you found an element, you could also name it. Maybe it wouldn’t seem so
selish then—maybe the name of your town or country would do nicely. A human
weakness, one that shows no signs of abating in the 21st century.
3. What a challenge to the chemist’s analytical prowess was the establishment of a new
element! To isolate the tiny residue that is truly diferent, ater many transformations
wrought on it. hen to reduce it, in the old way, with hydrogen, to a speck of metal.
Or, later, to look at its spectrum. he cratsmanship, the good hard chemical labor,
in the service of a paradigmatic search for something new, pervaded the style of the
inorganic chemists who searched for new elements. hey could not yet see into the
way the atoms were arranged in their compounds; their transformations were all they
had. hey were right to be proud of their skills.
In this lovingly researched book you have the dead ends, the voyages of discovery
whose end is certain shipwreck. And you have here a superlative antidote to the hagiographical seduction of the stories, oten just as complex in detail, of the reliable identiication of new elements. Although some, such as Ramsay’s wonderful identiication of
the noble gases, are retold here, these have been admirably recounted elsewhere. In “he
Lost Elements,” the failures speak to us. Completely lacking in the false condescension of
“How stupid can you be?,” the byways recounted in this book turn into lovely meandering
paths, leading to an understanding of how chemistry really works.
—Roald Hofmann
Acknowledgments
In such a huge volume, it is impossible to remember adequately the enormous and largely
hidden contributions of so many persons who, in conversations or with answers to our
questions, have supplied information and suggested new lines of investigation.
Most importantly, this book has been produced with the inancial support of Ente
Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze (ECRF), Florence, Italy, for which the authors are sincerely
grateful.
It has taken more than a dozen of years of hard work to bring this volume to fruition. It was not a continuous task, but deinitely a diicult and exciting one. Over such
a long period of time, many people were involved in our surveys, and if, in these oicial
acknowledgments, someone has been omitted, we deeply apologize.
First of all, many thanks to Francesca Salvianti for her patient proofreading and for
her many suggestions which greatly improved the text. Special thanks also go to these
tireless friends: Alessandra Beni, Barbara Nardi, Massimiliano Nardi, Alessandro
Ciandella, and Serena Bedini. Professor Juergen Heinrich Maar of the University of
Florianópolis was a lively presence during the writing of this volume. Marco Fontani’s
colleagues at the University of Siena, all equally involved in this task, deserve a great
big thank-you: Rosanna Meiattini, Marisa Pietrobono, Paola Fontani, Enrico Bellucci,
Stefania Casati, Simonetta Ferri, Arnaldo Cinquantini, Franco Laschi, Donato Donati,
Piero Zanello, and Emanuela Grigiotti.
he writing of the manuscript took so much time that one of the authors (Marco
Fontani), soon ater receiving his Ph.D., moved to the University of Florence, where
he wishes to thank his new colleagues: Emily Bulukin, Chiara Carbonera, Piero
Sarti-Fantoni, Ivano Bertini (1940–2012), and Paolo Manzelli. he personnel at the Polo
Scientiico di Sesto Fiorentino Library, Sabina Cavicchi, Marzia Fiorini, Roberto Bongi,
Laura Guarnieri, and Serena Terzani, and at the library of the College of New Rochelle,
Carolyn Reid and Kathy Mannino, deserve special thanks; they were able to ind, with
indomitable enthusiasm, all the material we needed, overcoming the numerous diiculties created by so many and such unusual requests.
If Evan Melhado and Paul W. Bohn, Linda Stahnke and Susan Fagan of the University
of Illinois, and Mary Jo Nye of Oregon State University were the irst (1995) to help us,
in recent times Emeriti Professors William H. Waggoner and Gilbert P. Haight greatly
enriched the text with personal recollections.
he scientiic, economic, and moral support of Luigi Campanella—President of the
Italian Chemical Society—was indispensable in every respect in the production of the
Italian Edition (2009). Special thanks to the Committee of the International Congress of
History of Chemistry, Maria Elvira Callapez, Isabel Malaquias, and Ernst Homburg, and,
on the Italian scene, to Ferdinando Abbri, Prince Paolo Amat di San Filippo, Giuliano
Dall’Olio, Rafaella Seligardi, Marco Taddia, Andrea Karachalios, and Patrizia Papini of
the Gruppo Nazionale di Storia e Fondamenti della Chimica.
xvii
x v iii
Acknowledgments
Special acknowledgments go to Anna Grandolini of the Academy of Sciences of the
XL and to Professor Rocco Capasso of the Italian Society for the Advancement of Science.
Professors Masanori Kaji, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and H. Kenji Yoshihara, Japan
Isotopes Data Institute, have courteously supplied us with abundant material concerning the discovery of nipponium. We also thank Peter van der Krogt, who published a
specialized webpage dedicated to the chemical elements and their history; it was a mutual
exchange of knowledge and a privilege for us when he published some our original papers.
Personal memories were decidedly indispensable for this volume. Gianluigi Calzetta
recalled the last years of Luigi Rolla (1882–1960), whereas Enrico Franceschi, Antonella
Tassara, Rocco Longo, and Aldo Iandelli (1912–2008) of the University of Genoa told us
many other stories about him. Fruitful talks with Anna, Maria Stella (1924–2012) and
Oretta Piccardi, daughters of Professor Georgio Piccardi (1895–1972), revealed an unusual
aspect of the lorentium story. Other personal memories of lorentium’s chemists were collected with the collaboration of Maria Angela Maggiorelli-Canneri (1925–2011), daughter of Professor Giovanni Canneri (1897–1964) and through the courtesy of Gianluigi
Fernandes, son of Dr. Lorenzo Fernandes (1902–77). Mario Galli and Fausto Fumi and
Mrs. Fumi of Genoa told us about the vicissitudes related to the epilogue of masurium
with the aim of honoring the memory of their teacher Carlo Perrier (1886–1948), co–
discoverer of technetium. Natalina Angeli (1920-2007), Verdelaura Angeli (b. 1915), and
Giovanni Batista di Giusto established a solid link to the memory of the great chemist Angelo Angelo (1864–1931). Marie-France Le Fel, Christopher Leigh-Smith, Carla
Grazioli (of the British Council) and Mirta Alessi (of Study & Cultures, UK) supplied
important information on Alice Leigh-Smith (1907–87) and anglo-helvetium. We thank
Dr. Franziska Rogger, head archivist of the Fachbereichsbibliothek Bülplatz at Bern, who
provided us with a great amount of archival material. he descendants of Georges Urbain
(1872–1938)—Daniel Urbain, Michel Wagner, and Jean-Rémy Bost—have brought into
clear focus the mighty image of the versatile discoverer of neo-ytterbium, lutecium, and
celtium. We also thank José Claro-Gomes, Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent (Université de
Paris), and Paul Ernest Léon Caro (Académie des Sciences) for their helpful information
and their personal letters about Urbain. Dr. M. Ghiara of the University of Naples gave us
all the existing documentation on the presumed element vesbium, while Dr. Edgar Swinne
sent us copies of many scientiic articles by his father, Richard Swinne (1885–1939), on the
naturally occurring superheavy elements coming from a mysterious interstellar powder
captured ages ago in the Arctic ice.
We have beneited from the courteous and information-packed letters of Oliver Sacks
and George B. Kaufman (California State University, Fresno). Our friendly conversations
with Barbara Scardigli-Foster, Camilla Cyriax, Marquis Benedetto Barbagli-Petrucci,
Franco Samoggia, and Katharina Gemperle have enriched our knowledge and delighted
us. We are likewise indebted to Francesco Michelazzo, Pierre Demers, Bruna Peri, Paola
Passadore, Eleonora K. Kochetova, Boris I. Pokrovskii, Elisa Novaresi, Gayle de Maria,
Marco Nucci, Francesca di Poppa, Boris Noskov, Anna Simonini, Antonella Leone, Ray
Goerler, Richard E. Rice, Dario Ventra, and Gioiosa Bindi-Brogi. We are also grateful for
our proitable and numerous meetings with Nicholas Long (Imperial College, London),
and the kind correspondence with Didier Trubert (Institut de Physique Nucléaire) and
Janis Stradins (Latvian Academy of Sciences). Emerita Professor Ruth Lewin Sime supplied unique clues and critical information enabling a complete study of Fermi’s attempt
xix Acknowledgments
to synthesize the irst transuranium elements. Darleane C. Hofman, Jean-Pierre and
Madeleine Adlof supplied hard-to-ind references, for which we are very grateful.
We wish to remember those persons who, during the long gestational period of this
book, passed away: Professors Michele Della Corte (1915–99) and Jacob A. Marinsky
(1918–2005), discoverer of promethium, both wonderful speakers and amiable gentlemen. When, in 1998, one of the authors (Marco Fontani) was in Boston, he had the rare
good fortune to reminisce with Glenn T. Seaborg. he past Rector of the University of
Florence Enzo Ferroni (1921–2007) was a font of useful information; Jean Busey Yntema
(1898–2002) and her children Douwe B. Yntema (1923–2000) and Mary Katherine, supplied memories on the history of illinium, as did the youngest son of Professor B Smith
Hopkins (1873–1952), B Smith Hopkins Jr. (1912–2003). Franco Berruti, director of the
Insitute for Chemicals and Fuels from Alternative Sources (Canada), Nicoletta Barbarita
of the Candian Embassy in Rome, and Joan Gosnell of Southern Methodist University
supplied us with other details about illinium. Retiring professor Franco Rasetti (1901–
2001), from his volunteer “exile” in Belgium, wrote numerous letters concerning ausonium and hesperium. Madame Eve Curie-Labouisse (1904–2007), daughter of Marie
Curie, and her nephew Pierre Joliot-Curie, related to us the “complex alchemies” of catium at the Institut du Radium.
We wish to thank all those who generously supplied us with photographs, especially the family of Jaroslav Heyrovský, the Auer von Welsbach Museum, the American
heosophical Society, and the Chemical Heritage Foundation.
he authors would like to profoundly thank Professors James Marshall (University
of North Texas) and Gregory S. Girolami (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign),
as well as our anonymous reviewers, for their unstinting and meticulous reading of the
manuscript and for their many suggestions, criticisms, scholarly observations, and corrections, which vastly improved the inal form of this volume. hanks are due also to
Vera V. Mainz, Secretary-Treasurer of the ACS Division of the History of Chemistry, for
solving some of our logistical problems. And kudos to our ine editor, Jeremy Lewis, who
gave the inal form to this book, for which we are most grateful.
Last in this list of acknowledgments, but no less important, we remember the collaboration of a marvellous citizen of the world who devoted her life equally to astrophysics
and civil rights: Margherita Hack (1922–2013). She supplied us with all the information
concerning the false discoveries of extraterrestrial elements, such as etherium, newtonium, nebulium, and coronium.
Note to the Reader
his book is divided into seven sections, arranged largely chronologically.
Part I consists of announcements of discoveries that precede the formulation of the
concept of “chemical element” in 1789, the conventional date that coincides with the publication of the “Traité Élémentaire de Chimie” by Antoine Lavoisier, which is considered
the irst modern treatise on chemistry.
Part II embraces the period from 1789 to 1869, the date of Dmitri Mendeleev’s formulation of the periodic table of the elements.
Part III ends at the very beginning of World War I (1914), a period of relative elemental chaos, with research following the guiding logic of Mendeleev’s empirical organizing
principle but lacking a theoretical basis.
Part IV (1914–39) takes us through Moseley’s revolution and Soddy’s isotopic theory,
to the advent of the synthesis of new nuclides with the aid of the irst linear accelerators
and cyclotrons.
Part V takes us up to the present day and consists largely of the syntheses of the transuranium elements, but also includes fanciful and imaginative stories of elusive elements
whose atomic numbers were less than one (“heaps” of neutrons).
Part VI is devoted to those elements so bizarre that, if they had ever been discovered,
they would never have found a place in the periodic table.
Part VII is dedicated to the most recent attempts at chemical transmutation, not in the
alchemical sense, whose history would lead us far from the aim of this volume, but with
physical instruments or cumbersome apparatus whose use was carried on in a “better way
to obtain erroneous results.”
Elemental names appearing in italics throughout the book are those of chemical elements that were false, spurious, not conirmed, or even correct but that have fallen into
oblivion or whose use has been lost or changed over time. hey occupy a separate index
at the end of this volume.
A word about units: he units used in this book are the standard international units
but, where appropriate, units mentioned in the original documents but no longer in use
are also reported. A word about the persons who appear in this book: For those persons
whose scientiic discoveries are pertinent to the narration, a fairly extended biography is
supplied. Birth and death dates (when known) are contained in the Name Index at the end
of this volume and follow the person’s name when irst mentioned in the book.
xxi
Introduction
WHY COLLECT INTO ONE VOLUME THE DISCOVERIES
OF ELEMENTS THAT HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO BE
ERRONEOUS OR HAVE BEEN FORGOTTEN?
In 1961, Denis Duveen asserted that we cannot properly understand chemistry without a
knowledge of its history.1 his idea has subsequently been enlarged upon in the literature
of chemical education. Its history “is not only a chronologically organized set of facts,
but also a coherent picture of the origins of ideas, their development, and their inluence
and consequences for human civilization,”2 and an aid to understanding how chemists
have solved problems in the past, thus revealing the nature of the scientiic process. 3 It is
hoped that the contents of this volume will help readers understand that the pathway to
the classiication of the elements was fraught with obstacles and errors that actually, in
the long run, helped to clarify the nature of these fundamental units of matter. One might
even attribute the role of catalyst to some of these errors, in much the same way that the
famous, but brilliant, blunders of Charles Darwin (1809–82), Linus Pauling (1901–94),
and Albert Einstein (1879–1955) have become the stuf of legend.4
Although physicists have as their purview the birth of the universe, and biologists
concentrate on the origin of life, chemists have a unique role to play in the ordering of
the building blocks of nature, namely, the development of the periodic table of the elements. his single document embodies much of our knowledge of chemistry and, as such,
has become emblematic of our discipline. However, the table as it has come down to us
has undergone many changes over the two centuries of its evolution. Although certain
relationships were initially discerned among the elements, how to order them was not
always clear. An order based on atomic weight seemed to present the best approach in
the mid-19th century, but many atomic weights had been determined erroneously, and,
in addition, some anomalies in the properties of elements were observed. So it gradually
became clear that there were missing pieces to the puzzle that had to be found. As well,
the ordering attempt revealed some obvious gaps that led chemists to seek the missing
elements—an enterprise that was notably successful.
And perhaps too successful—because once chemists realized that there were elements
“out there” to be discovered, it was open season with no limits, particularly when it came
to the higher atomic weight elements. It was only with the establishment of the atomic
number as the primary ordering principle in 1913 that some “sense” could be made of
the table. Yet, at the same time, the discovery of radioactivity and the seemingly endless
xxiii

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