edited by
JOHN H. WOTlZ Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Illinois62901
Sir William Crookes, Victorium, and the Library of Congress Eleanor S . Elder Earl K. Long Library Uniuersity of New Orleans New Orleans, LA 70122 The history of the rare earth elements is littered with short-lived eliments given fanciful names like kosmium and neokwmnm, inwgnitum, junmium, philippium, mosandium, - eurenium. and aldebaranium. In Volumt,- V of his"(:omnre. hensive ~ i e a t i s eon inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry," Mellor eives a tahle recording the fate of the 70 rare earth elementAeported between 1754 and 1920 (I).In thislist, the element "monium" (1898) is disposed of with the remark "victorium"; and "victorium" (1899), isolated from yttria by W. Crookes, is designated "mixture." a oronouncement of doom shared hy,ya& other entries in the tahle. Victorium, however, did not die so easily, especially in the United States. The first science classification schedule for the Library of Congress (2), developed in the early 1900's and published in 1905, listed under the heading "Inorganic Chemistry," QD 181.V5-Victorium; preceded by QD 181.V2, Vanadium, and followed by QD 181.W1, Tungsten-and here Victorium persisted for many years, through five editions.' None of the other spurious elements were ever assigned a classification number, so that victorium's recognition and endurance. most urobablv throueh an oversieht. - . sindes it out from the &any other false discovkes in the rare earth family reported before Mosely's work indicated the limits of the gaps which existed in the periodic table. Victorium was identified by the English scientist Sir William Crookes, best known for this improved vacuum tube YCrookes tube"), his studs of cathode rays, the discoverv of the element thallium, a n d the invention-of the radiometer. One of his consuming interests during the 1880's was spectroscopy, particularly of the rare earth minerals, and it was through spectroscopic methods that he claimed the existence of thenew element monium. later to be renamed victorium. Spurred on perhaps by his discovery of the brilliant green suectral line of thallium. Crookes reoorted. in his 1898 oresidential address to the British Association'for the Advancement of Science. "enerossine work of mv own on the fractionatimoi yttrL, to whlch fi;r the last eiihteen years I have given ceaseless attention." His pntcess involved fractional crysmllization and suhsequent examination in vacuum of the fractions' phosphorescent spectra. HY this method he was able . to "free" a group of hands present in the original spectra "from its accompanying fellows. . . increasing its intensity and detail." He attributed this group of hands, which grew stronger on subsequent "purification" to a new element (3): As the group of lines which betrayed its existence stand alone, almost at the endof the ultraviolet spectrum,I proposetoname the newest of the elements Monium, from the Greek pouor, alone. ~
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The next year this address wss partiall!, reprinted in the United States as a part of the Annual Report of the Board of Regents ot'the Smithsonian Institution, in accordance with
that institution's policy of including in its annual summary "a miscellaneous selection of papers (some of them originai, embracing a considerable range of scientificinvestigation and discussion)" ( 4 ) . In this manner it probably came~tothe attention of J. David Thompson of the Library of Congress, who was devising the arrangement of the "hooks and pamphlets on the shelves a t the Lihrary of Congress in the section devoted to pure science" (S),and he therefore included Crwkes' latest discovery in the list of elements known a t that time. The Library of Congress obviously pursued the historv of monium closely enough to pick up thename change to "bittorium" which was made the next year when Crookes published the results which he had announced previously in his address. He wrote ". . . I provisionally called it Monium; but for several reasons I now consider the name Victorium more appropriate" ( 6 ) .The "several reasons" probably included gratitude for the knighthood Queen Victoria had hestowed on "Professor Crrwkes, FRS" in 1897, the ye= 01' her diammd jubilee; and acknowledgment, perhaps, of the jubilee itself. IJnfortunately, however, 1.C did not follow upon the rest of thestory. In 1905. Georges I.'rbain, the discoverer of the elements lutetium and yrterl~ium,and Crwkes himself both puhliahed results which indicated that victurium was a mixture t7.81. Im~uritiesin Crwkes'samoles had misled him. for it was later shbwn that the phosphorescent spectra of the Are earths are areatlv changed - hv.the addition of even a minute amount o f a n i;purity. This circumstance is aggravated by the fact that i t is almost imuossihle to obtain the elements in their free state, without any trace of the other rare earths. Characterization of rare earth elements by Crookes' method is therefore impossible. Crookes continued to stay active scientificallv for manv years until his death in 1919, Berving as President of the R O Society of London a t the age of 82. In spite of his immense effort, he never discovered a second element; and thallium remains his sole contrihution to the periodic tahle. Victorium, however, continued to live on in the Lihrary of Congress Classification Schedules until the sixth edition of class Q (science) appeared in 1973. ~
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Literature Cited (11 Mellor, J. W. "Comprehensive Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chemisuy? Lungmans, Green and Co., London, 1922-37,Vol 5, pp. SOPS. (2) U. S. Libraryaf Cangrear."Cla~~iAcationClassQ Science? Washington: Govevnmont Printing Offiee, 1913. (31 Cmokes. Sir William, Presidential Address: "Wheat supply and demand. achiovememin chemistwand physics. Mental k1epathy:'R~prt o f l h r . . Meetiw d t h ~ B n t i s hAr(rrormlion/or the Aduoncemenf u/S&nre.. .%38, (1898).IRefercncp Uken from the Royal Swiefy of Lundun. "Catalog of Scientific Papers L88L19W: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1914-25,Vui. 13, p. 410.1 (41 Crmkes. Sir Willism, "Some ofthe Laksf Achievements of Seiencp? Annuol Report o / t h e Roord of Reemre o f t h e Smithsonion I n m r u r i o n . 143-153, (1899). (51 Ref. 121. p. 8. (61 Crmkos. Sir William. "Photographic Researches an Phoaphorescm Spectra: un victorium. a New Element Assuriated with Yttrium," P w e . R o y Soe. London, 65, 237
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The author is grateful to Dr. Robert Dikeman for calling atten& to the existence of victorium in the fifth edition of the LC classification schedule. V o ~ 57, m Number 6, June 1980 1 421
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