The DISCOVERY of the ELEMENTS. CHRONOLOGY MARY ELVIRA WEEKS The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
Dec. 23, 1722 Birth of Axel Friedrich Croustedt, the discoverer of nickel, at Sodemanland, Sweden. Jan. 25, 1627 Birth of Robert Boyle in Ireland. IudeOct. 10, 1731 Birth of Sir Henry Cavendish a t Nice. pendent discoverer of phosphorus. 1630 Birth of Johann Kunckel, early writer on phos- Mar. 13, 1733 (old style) Birth of Joseph Priestley at Fieldhead, near Leeds. phorus. 1735 Georg Brandt isolates cobalt. 1637 A Chinese book entitled "Tien koug kai ou" 1737 Hellot prepares a button of metallic bismuth describes the metallurgy and uses of zinc. and makes public the secret process for preparing 1645 Birth of Dr. John Mayow in London. Author phosphorus. of an early theory of combustion. 1740 J. H. Pott states that pyrolusite contains the 1649 Schroder describes two methods of preparing oxide of a new metal. metallic arsenic. 1665 Robert Hooke gives a theory of combustion June 1, 1740 Birth of Miiller von Reichenstein, the discoverer of tellurium, at Vienna. in his book "Micrographia." 1740-1 Charles Wood finds platinum in Carthagena, that the air has 1669 Dr. John Mayow recognizes New Spain. two constituents. 1669 The alchemist Brand of Hamburg discovers Dec. 9, 1742 Birth of Carl Wilhelm Scheele at Stralsund, Swedish Pomerania. phosphorus. Aug. 26, 1743 Birth of Lavoisier in Paris. 1679 Death of Dr. Mayow. Dec. 1, 1743 Birth of Martin Heinrich Klaproth at 1691 Death of Robert Boyle. Weruigerode in the Harz. One of the first to investiJune 26, 1694 Birth of Georg Brandt, the discoverer gate uranium, titanium, and cerium. of cobalt, at Riddarhytta, Vestmanland, Sweden. Aug. 19, 1745 Birth of Johann Gottlieb Gahn, the EIGHTEENTII CENTURY discoverer of manganese, a t Voxna, South Helsingland, Swedeu. 1700 Lemery describes hydrogen. 1701, Turquet de Mayerne mentions the inflamma- 1746 Marggraf prepares metallic zinc by reduction of calamine. bility of hydrogen. Oct. 2,1746 Birth of Peter Jacob Hjelm, the discoverer 1702 Death of Kunckel. of molybdenum, at Sunnerbo Harad, Sweden. Mar. 3, 1709 Birth of Andreas Sigismund Marggraf 1748 Don Antonio de Ulloa describes platinum. at Berlin. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Nov. 3, 1749 Birth of Daniel Rutherford, the discoverer of nitrogen, at Edinburgh. 1750 Dr. Wiiiam Brownrigg describes platinum. 1753 Gmffroy the Younger publishes his treatise on "The Chemical Analysis of Bismuth." 1754 Cronstedt isolates nickel. 1755 Birth of Don Fausto d'Elhujar at Logroiio, Spain. With his brother, Don Juan Jose, he isolated tungsten. 1755 Dr. Joseph Black of Edinburgh recognizes magnesia alba to be distinct from lime. 1759 Marggraf independently recognizes the distinction between magnesia and lime. June 5, 1760 Birth of Johann Gadolin, the discoverer of yttria, at Abo, Finland. Nov. 30, 1761 Birth of Smithson Tennant, the discoverer of osmium and iridium, at Wensleydale, Yorkshire. 1762 Birth of the Reverend William Gregor, the discoverer of titanium, in Cornwall. May 16,1763 Birth of L. N. Vauquelin, the discoverer of chromium and beryllium, a t St. An&& des Berteaux. About 1765 Birth of Charles Hatchett, the discoverer of columbium (niobium). Aug. 19, 1765 Death of Cronstedt at Stockholm. Nov. 10, 1765 Birth of Andres Manuel del Rio, the discoverer of "erythronium" (vanadium), in Spain. Aug. 6, 1766 Birth of Dr. William Hyde Wollaston, the discoverer of palladium and rhodium, a t East Dereham, Norfolkshire. Dec. 28, 1766 Birth of Wilhelrn Hisinger, the discoverer of the earth ceria. Berzelius, Hisinger, and Klaproth all investigated this earth, the latter independently. Jan. 16, 1767 Birth of A n d m Gustaf Ekeberg, the discoverer of tantalum, at Stockholm. Apr. 29, 1768 Death of Georg Brandt at Stockholm. 1771 Scheele describes hydrofluoric acid. 1772 Daniel Rutherford discovers nitrogen. (Scheele, Priestley, and Cavendish discover it independently at about the same time.) Apr., 1774 Pierre Bayen prepares oxygen by heating mercuric oxide. 1774 Scheele publishes his famous treatise "Concerning Manganese and its Properties," which led to the discovery of three elements: manganese, barium, and chlorine. Aug. 1,1774 Priestley prepares oxygen. (Scheele prepared it before this, but his results were not published until 1777.) 1774 Gahn isolates manganese. 1775 Arfvedson publishes his doctor's dissertation defending Bergman's belief in the elementary nature of nickel. (This is, of course, not the Arfvedson who discovered lithium in 1817.) 1775 Scheele isolates phosphorns from bones. Aug. 2, 1776 Birth of Friedrich Stromeyer, the discoverer of cadmium, at Gottingen.
Feb. 8, 1777 Birth of Bernard Courtois, the discoverer of iodine, at Dijon. 1777 Lavoisier overthrows the phlogiston theory and demonstrates the true nature of combustion. May 4, 1777 Birth of Louis Jacques Thenard. Aug. 14, 1777 Birth of Hans Christian Oersted. 1778 Scheele distinguishes between graphite and the ore then known as "molybdenum." Dec. 6, 1778 Birth of Gay-Lussac. i r Humphry Davy a t PenDec. 17, 1778 Birth of S zauce, Cornwall. 1779 Scheele distinguishes between lime and baryta. Aug. 20, 1779 Birth of Berzelius at Wiifversunda, Sweden. 1780 Birth of J. W. Dobereiner, the discoverer of the "triads." 1781 Scheele discovers tungstic acid. 1781 Hjelm isolates molybdenum. Aug. 7, 1782 Death of Marggraf. 1782 Discovery of tellurium by Miiller von Reichenstein. 1783 Discovery of tungsten by the d'Elhujar brothers. May 21, 1786 Death of Scheele. June 2, 1787 Birth of Nils Gabriel Sefstrom, the discoverer of vanadium, at Ilsbo Socken, Sweden. Although vanadium is now known to be identical with del Rio's "erythronium," the latter chemist did not distinguish clearly between chromium and the new element. 1789 Klaproth observes uranium in pitchblende, but does not isolate it. In the same year he discovers the earth zirconia. 1790 Crawford recognizes strontia as a new earth. 1791 The Rev. William Gregor discovers the oxide of a new metal, titanium. Jan. 12, 1792 Birth of Johann August Arfvedson, the discoverer of lithium, at Skagerholms-Bmk, Skaraborgs L a . 1794 Death of Lavoisier. 1794 Gadolin discovers the earth yttria. May 29, 1794 Birth of A. A. B. Bussy at Marseilles. He obtained magnesium in coherent form. 1795 Klaproth re-discovers titanium, but does not succeed in isolating it. Jan. 11, 1796 Birth of Karl Karlovich Klaus, the discoverer of ruthenium, at Dorpat, Esthonia. 1797 Smithson Tennant proves that the diamond consists solely of carbon. Sept. 10,1797 Birth of Carl Gustav Mosander, the discoverer of lanthanum and didymium, at Kalmar, Sweden. Feb., 1798 Vauquelin recognizes beryllium (glucinum) and isolates chromium. Beryllium was first isolated in 1828 by Wohler. Jan. 25, 1798 Klaproth brings Miiller von Reichenstein's discovery of tellurium to the attention of German chemists. Feb. 19,1799 Birth of Ferdinand Reich, the discoverer of indium, at Bernburg.
NINETEENTH CENTURY
July 31, 1800 Birth of Friedrich Wohler at Eschersheim, Germany. 1801 Del Rio recognizes the presence of a new metal "erythronium" (vanadium) in a lead ore from Zimapan, Mexico. He afterward confused it with chromium. 1801 Hatchett observes columbium (niobium) in an ore from New England. 1802 Ekeberg discovers the earth tantala. Sept. 30, 1802 Birth of A. J. Balard, the discoverer of bromine, at Montpellier. Mar. 17, 1803 Birth of Carl Lowig, independent discoverer of bromine. 1803 Klaproth, Berzelius, and Hisinger analyze cerite and discover the earth ceria. 1803 Wollaston discovers palladium and rhodium. Feb. 6. 1804 Death of Priestley at Northumberland, Pa. 1804 Smithson Tennant discovers osmium and iridium. Oct. 6, 1807 Davy isolates potassium. A few days later he isolates sodium. 1808 Davy isolates barium, strontium, calcium, and magnesium. 1808 Gay-Lussac and Thenard isolate boron. Davy isolates it independently. 1809 Dr. Wollaston makes the erroneous conclusion that tantalum and columbium are identical. Feb. 24, 1810 Death of Cavendish. Nov. 15, 1810 Davy announces his proof of the elementary nature of chlorine to the Royal Society. 1811 Courtois discovers iodine. Mar. 24, 1811 Birth of Eugbne Melchior Peligot, the 61st to isolate uranium. Mar. 31 (or May 31), 1811 Birth of Robert Bunsen at Gottingen. Feb. 11, 1813 Death of Ekeberg at Upsala. Od. 7, 1813 Death of Hjelm at Stockholm. 1813 Clement conlirms the discovery of iodine by Courtois. 1814 Fraunhofer discovers the dark lines in the sun's spectrum. 1814 Gay-Lussac publishes his classical research on iodine. Feb. 22, 1815 Death of Tennant at Boulogne-surMer. Jan. 1, 1817 Death of Klaproth. Apr. 24, 1817 Birth of Jean Galissard de Marignac, the discoverer of ytterbia and gadolinia, a t Geneva, Switzerland. June 11, 1817 Death of William Gregor. 1817 Arfvedson discovers lithium. 1817 Stromeyer discovers cadmium. 1818 Berzelius discovers selenium. Mar. 11, 1818 Birth of Henri Sainte-Claire Deville on the island of St. Thomas in the Antilles. Dec. 8, 1818 Death of Gahn at Stockholm. Dec. 15, 1819 Death of Daniel Rutherford.
1820 Birth of Beguyer de Chamourtois, the discoverer of the "telluric screw." July 15, 1820 Birth of Claude August Lamy at N&y, France. He prepared thallium in the metallic state. 1823 Berzelius isolates amorphous silicon. Mar. 12, 1824 Birth of Gustav Kirchhoff. Nov. 21, 1824 Birth of Hieronymus Theodor Richter, the 6rst to observe the indigo line of indium. 1824 Berzelius isolates impure zirconium. 1825 Oersted isolates impure aluminum. Oct. 12, 1825 (1826?) Death of Muller von Reichenstein at Vienna. 1825 Berzelius prepares impure amorphous titanium. 1825 Carl Lowig isolates bromine. 1826 Balard isolates bromine. His results were published before those of Lowig. 1827 Wohler isolates aluminum. 1828 Wohler isolates beryllium. Bussy isolates it independently. 1828 Berzelius separates the earth thoria from thorite. Dec. 22, 1828 Death of Dr. Wollaston in London. 1829 Dobereiner observes the triads. May 29, 1829 Death of Davy at Geneva, Switzerland. Nov. 15, 1829 Death of Vauquelin at the Chateau des Berteaux. 1830 Sefstrom discovers vanadium. Aug. 19, 1830 Birth of Lothar Meyer at Varel on the Jade. 1831 Bussy obtains magnesium in compact form. (Davy had isolated it in 1808.) i r William Crookes. June 17, 1832 Birth of S Jan. 7, 1833 Birth of Sir Henry E. Roscoe, thefirst to liberate metallic vanadium. Feb. 6, 1833 Death of Don Fausto d'Elhujar at Madrid. Feb. 7, 1834 Birth of Mendeleeff a t Tobolsk, Siberia. Aug. 18, 1835 Death of Stromeyer at Gottingen. 1837 Birth of J. A. R. Newlands, the discoverer of the law of octaves. Apr. 18, 1838 Birth of Lecoq de Boisbaudran at Cognac. Sept. 27, 1838 Death of Courtois in Paris. Dec. 26, 1838 Birth of Clemens Winkler. the discoverer of germanium, at Freiberg. 1839 Mosander discovers lanthana. Feb. 10, 1840 Birth of Per Theodor Cleve, the discoverer of thulium, at Stockholm. May 27, 1840 Birth of Lars Fredrik Nilson, the discoverer of scandium, in Oster Gothland, Sweden. 1841 Peligot isolates uranium. 1841 Mosander discovers didymia. Oct. 28.1841 Death of -1. A. Arfvedson a t his Hedenso estate. Nov. 12, 1842 Birth of Robert John Strutt, Lord Rayleigh, at Terling, England. 1843 Mosander separates terbia and erbia from gadolinite. 1844 Klaus discovers ruthenium. Nov. 30, 1845 Death of Sefstrom at Stockholm.
Feb. 10, 1847 Death of Hatchett at Chelsea. Aug. 7, 1848 Death of Berzelius at Stockholm. Mar. 24, 1849 Death of Dobereiner. May 23, 1849 Death of del Rio. May 9, 1850 Death of Gay-Lussac in Paris. Mar. 9, 1851 Death of Oersted. Jan. 1; 1852 Birth of Eughne Anatole Demarsay, the discoverer of europium, at Paris. June 28, 1852 Death of Hisinger. Aug. 15, 1852 Death of Gadolin. Sept. 28, 1852 Birth of Henri Moissan in Paris. Oct. 2, 1852 Birth of Sir William Ramsay at Glasgow. 1854 Henri Sainte-Claire Deville perfects an industrial process for aluminum and . prepares the first . crystalline silicon. June 20, 1857 Death of Thenard. S e ~ t 1. . 1858 Birth of Karl Auer. Baron von Welsbach.' Oct. 15, 1858 Death of Mosander. May 15, 1859 Birth of Pierre Curie. 1860 Invention of the spectroscope by Bunsen and Kircbhoff. May 10, 1860 Bunsen and Ercbhoff announce the discovery of cesium. Feb. 23,1861 Bunsen and Kirchhoff announce the discovery of rubidium. Spring, 1861 Crookes observes the green line of thallium. Spring, 1862 Lamy isolates metallic thallium. 1862 Beguyer de Chancourtois draws his "telluric screw." 1863 Birth of P. L. T. Heroult and of Charles Martin Hall, independent discoverers of the electrolytic process for preparing metallic aluminum. Summer, 1863 Reich and Richter discover indiw. 1864 Newlands and Lothar Meyer independently arrange the elements in series and families. Mar. 12, 1864 Death of Klaus. Nov. 7, 1867 Birth of Marie Sklodowska (Mme. Curie) at Warsaw, Poland. 1868 Janssen and Lockyer independently observe the Ds line of helium in the sun's chromosphere. Tune 16. 1869 Roscoe announces the isolation of vanadium. 1869 Lothar Meyer and Mendel&& independently discover the periodic system. 1870 Birth of B. B. Boltwood, the discoverer of ionium. Jan. 24, 1872 Birth of Moms William Travers a t London. April 12, 1872 Birth of Georges Urbain, the discoverer of lutecium. Sept. 1, 1873 Birth of B. Smith Hopkins, the discoverer of illinium, at Owosso, Michigan. This element was discovered independently by Luigi Rolla of Florence and by the American chemists, Cork, James, and Fogg. Aug. 27, 1875 Boisbaudran discovers gallium, the first element to be discovered with the aid of the spark spectrum.
1876 Death of Balard. 1878 Marignac separates ytterbia from erbia. Mar. 20, 1878 Death of Lamy a t Paris. 1879 Boisbaudran discovers samaria. 1879 Nilson discovers scandium (ekaboron). 1879 Cleve discovers holmia and thulia. The former had been discovered independently by Soret in 1878. 1881 Death of Henri Saiute-Claire Deville. Feb. 1, 1882 Death of Bussy at Paris. Apr. 27, 1882 Death of Ferdinand Reich. Oct. 9, 1882 Death of Wohler. 1885 Birth of Georg von Hevesy in Budapest. Codiscoverer with Dirk Coster of the element hafnium. June 18, 1885 Auer von Welsbach announces his separation of didymia into praseodymia and neodymia. 1886 Death of Beguyer de Chancourtois. 1886 Boisbaudran discovers dysprosia and gadolinia, but finds that the latter is identical with an oxide discovered by Marignac in 1880. Feb. 6, 1886 Winkler discovers germanium. Feb. 23, 1886 Charles Martin Hall produces electrolytic aluminum. Dr. H6roult made the same discovery independently a few weeks later. June 26, 1886 Moissan isolates fluorine. Oct. 16, 1887 Death of Kirchhoff. Nov. 23, 1887 Birth of Moseley at Weymonth, England. 1890 Death of P6ligot in Paris. 1892 Lord Rayleigh finds that atmospheric nitrogen is heavier than nitrogen from the decomposition of ammonia. 1894 Ramsay and Rayleigh announce the discovery of argon. Apr. 15, 1894 Death of Marignac. 1895 Ramsay and Cleve independently discover helium. Apr. 11, 1895 Death of Lothar Meyer. May 30, 1898 Ramsay and Travers discover krypton. June, 1898 Ramsay and Travers discover neon. July 12, 1898 Ramsay and Travers discover xenon. July, 1898 Mme. Curie discovers polonium. July 29, 1898 Death of J. A. R. Newlands. Sept. 25, 1898 Death of Hieronymus Richter. Dec., 1898 M. and Mme. Curie discover radium. 1898 Mme. Curie and G. C. Schmidt independently discover the radioactivity of thorium. May 14, 1899 Death of Nilson. Aug. 16, 1899 Death of Bunsen. 1899 Debieme discovers actinium. TWENTIETH CENTURY
1900 Dom discovers radon (radium emanation). 1900 Sir William Crookes discovers uranium XI. 1901 Demarsay discovers europium. 1902 Rutherford and Soddy discover thorium X. Oct. 8, 1904 Death of W'ikler. 1904 Death of Demarsay a t Paris. 1904-5 Giesel and Godlewski independently discover actinium X.
1905 Hahn discovers radiothorium and mesothorium 1. June 18,1905 Death of Cleve at Upsda. 1906 Hahn discovers radio-actinium. Apr. 19, 1906 Death of Pierre Curie. . 1907 Boltwood discovers ionium. This element was independently discovered by Hahn and Marckwald. Feh. 2, 1907 Death of Mendel6eff. Feh. 20, 1907 Death of Moissan. 1907 Urbain discovers lutetium. 1907 Von Bolton prepares a columbium regulus. 1910 Mme. Curie and M. Dehierne isolate radium metal. 1910 M. A. Hunter prepares titanium 99.9% pure. 1911 Antonoff discovers uranium Y. May 28, 1912 Death of Boisbaudran. 1913 Fajans and Gijhring discover uranium Xp (element 91, eka-tantalum). Dee., 1913, and Apr., 1914 Mmeley publishes his papers on "The High Frequency Spectra of the Elements." 1914 T. W. Richards discovers a radioactive isotope of lead. 1914 Death of P. L. T. H6roult and C. M. Hall. Aug. 10, 1915 Moseley killed at the Dardanelles. Dec. 18, 1915 Death of Sir Henry E. Roscoe. July 23, 1916 Death of Ramsay. 1917 Hahn and Meitner discover protoactinium.
Soddy and Cranston discover it independently. Apr. 4, 1919 Death of sir William Crookes. June 30, 1919 Death of Lord Rayleigh. 1921 Hahn discovers uranium Z. Jan., 1923 Cmter and Hevesy discover hafnium (element 72). June, 1924 Noddack, Tacke, and Berg discover masurium and rhenium (elements 43 and 75). 1925 Heyrovsw and Dolejkk of Prague and Loring and Druce in England independently discover element 75 in manganese salts. June, 1926 Hopkins, Hams, and Yntema announce the discovery of illinium (element 61). Nov., 1926 Rolla and Fernandes announce the discovery of element 61, their preliminary results having been deposited in June, 1924, as a sealed package with the Reale Accademia dei Lincei. 1927 Death of Boltwood. Aug. 5, 1929 Death of Auer von Welshach at Welshach Castle in Carinthia. 1930 Allison and Murphy announce the discovery of element 87 (virginium), as a result of their magneto-optic method of analysis. May, 1931 Allison, Murphy, Bishop, and 'Sommer announce the discovery of element 85 (alabamine). Oct., 1931 Papish and Wainer obtain spectroscopic evidence of element 87. (Part XXI will appear in tke May issue.)
