Antimony, Gold, and Jupiter’s Wolf: How the Elements Were Named

290 Pages·2020·15.323 MB·English

by  Peter Wothers

ANTIMONY, GOLD, AND JUPITER’S WOLF

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I dedicate this book to
Joanne and Keith Rutherford
who not only share their name with
the discoverer of the most abundant element
in the atmosphere, but who, in the course of their valuable professions,
save lives by administering the second most abundant element,
just as foreseen by its discoverer
250 years ago.

PREFACE
In November 2016, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry
(IUPAC) officially announced the proposed names for four new elements—
nihonium, moscovium, tennessine, and oganesson. These four additions finally
‘completed’ the periodic table, in that every space had a named element from
number 1 (hydrogen) to number 118 (oganesson), and all seven rows of the
table were now filled. It’s possible that other elements might be synthesized—
research is certainly ongoing—but it’s unlikely that the table will ever appear
as neat again, since to fill the next row, another fifty-four elements would need
to be made.
The naming process is not a trivial matter, and it usually takes several years.
An independent body (a joint working party between the IUPAC and the
International Union of Pure and Applied Physics) first has to scrutinize the evi-
dence and confirm that atoms of the element in question were actually formed
(albeit briefly), then establish who exactly made them first, and, finally, wait
for all the concerned parties within the group who first made the discovery to
agree on a name. Even then, the joint working party has to approve the sug-
gested name. Despite the arduous process, it’s clear how these four elements
were named: nihonium after one of the two ways to say ‘Japan’ in Japanese
and literally meaning ‘the Land of Rising Sun’; moscovium after the Moscow
region, home of the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research, where the experiments
resulting in its discovery were conducted; tennessine in recognition of the con-
tribution of the Tennessee region of the United States to superheavy research,
and, finally, oganesson, named after one of the pioneers of transactinoid elem-
ent research, Professor Yuri Oganessian.
It’s easy to guess where the names of some of the other elements came
from—for example, einsteinium or germanium. But for many others, their ori-
gins are less clear or even not known with certainty. These are the elements
of interest in this book. It isn’t a simple etymological list of the elements and
their names; rather, it’s an exploration of why some of the elements eventually
ended up with the names they did. For example, while it’s easy to find out that
selenium was named after the goddess of the moon, why did the discoverer
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preface
choose to do that in the first place? The answer to this question is much more
involved. Similarly, the element oxygen is familiar to all of us, but it has a far-
from-ideal name, supposedly meaning ‘acid-generator’, although others from
the period thought it more precisely suggested ‘a sharp chin’, or even ‘the son
of a vinegar merchant’. Exactly how it ended up with the name requires a tour
through the history of chemistry and an understanding of some of the key sci-
entists and their changing theories.
Where possible, original sources have been used so that we can hear the lan-
guage as used by the original discoverers (or, at least, an English translation).
Old spellings have been retained, with the exception of the ‘long s’ character or
the occasional v/u interchange.
vviiiiii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First, I must thank my parents for giving me my very first chemistry set and
believing me when I promised not to ‘blow the house up’. There was, I think,
only one ‘minor’ disaster, when a jar of the intolerably smelly gas hydrogen
sulfide toppled over and stank the house out. I can only apologize again, and
I am sure it would not have helped at the time if I had pointed out that the gas
was more toxic than hydrogen cyanide . . . I must also thank my brother John
and his wife Tracy for their constant love and support; and my sister Joanne
and her husband Keith, who are acknowledged in the dedication. I am grate-
ful to my whole family for the encouragement and support that led to the first
generation from our family attending university.
From the home I grew up in, to what has now been home for most of my life:
I must acknowledge the invaluable support I receive from the community that is
St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. This has come in the form of moral support,
guidance, and encouragement from the Master of the College, currently in the
form of Sir Mark and Lady Welland, and previously from past Masters Dame
Jean Thomas, Prof. David Ingram, and Sir Terrance English. I have been inspired
by some great fellow scientists—notably the late Sir Alan Battersby, a highly dis-
tinguished chemist, and also the late Dr John Shakeshaft, who admitted a ter-
rified young teenager to the college many years ago. Our community thrives
with a melting pot of great minds of different hues (rather like the elements of
the periodic table); it is a privilege, for example, to end up sitting next a lead-
ing expert on Shakespeare at lunch, or to have coffee with a medieval French
linguist. I thank many of my fellow Fellows for their help with parts of this pro-
ject, in particular Dr Paul Hartle (English), Dr Miranda Griffin (medieval French),
Prof. Geoffrey Kantaris (Spanish), Drs John and Dorothy Thomson (History and
Classics respectively), Dr Hester Lees-Jeffries (English), Prof. Richard Dance
(Anglo-Saxon Norse and Celtic), and Dr River Chen and Prof. Hans van de Ven
for their much-needed help as I tried to understand the meaning behind Chinese
characters. I am also grateful to other members of our Fellowship who have
played a key role, directly or indirectly, in the production of this book, namely
Prof. John Pyle (Chemistry), Drs Ivan and Helen Scales (Geography and Marine
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