Helvetium

Helvetium was the suggested name of chemical element number 85, now known as astatine, given to it by the Swiss chemist Walter Minder. Walter Minder announced the discovery in 1940.[1] He chose the name based on "Helvetia", the Latin name for Switzerland, to honor his country of birth.

In the year 1942 he together with Alice Leigh-Smith announced a second time the discovery of element number 85.[2] This time he proposed the name anglohelvetium to honor also England, the home of Alice Leigh-Smith.

Later it was proven that in fact he had not discovered element 85.[3][4]

References
  1. "Element 85". Nature. 146 (3694): 225. 1940. Bibcode:1940Natur.146Q.225.. doi:10.1038/146225a0.
  2. Alice Leigh-Smith, Walter Minder (1942). "Experimental Evidence of the Existence of Element 85 in the Thorium Family". Nature. 150 (3817): 767–768. Bibcode:1942Natur.150..767L. doi:10.1038/150767a0.
  3. Karlik, Berta; Bernert, Traude (1942). "Über eine vermutete ß-Strahlung des Radium A und die natürliche Existenz des Elementes 85". Naturwissenschaften. 30 (44–45): 685. Bibcode:1942NW.....30..685K. doi:10.1007/BF01487965.
  4. Nefedov, V D; Norseev, Yu V; Toropova, M A; Khalkin, Vladimir A (1968). "Astatine". Russian Chemical Reviews. 37 (2): 87. Bibcode:1968RuCRv..37...87N. doi:10.1070/RC1968v037n02ABEH001603.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.