Celestial bodies, element naming

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as new elements were identified, the discoverer received the honor of naming the element. Different trends in assigning names developed at different times. Element names were based on mythological figures, celestial bodies, color, chemical properties, geographical areas, minerals, derived names, and people. Table 5.3 gives the derivation of names and symbols for the common elements. 

In the course of investigating the production of platinum from its ores, Wollaston and Tennant found four new elements in 1803. Tennant isolated osmium and iridium Wollaston found rhodium and palladium. As was the contemporary habit, Wollaston named the latter after a newly discovered celestial body. Uranium gained its name this way after William Herschel s discovery of the planet Uranus, and palladium honoured the asteroid Pallas, found in 1802. 

Confident of success, M. Klaproth proposed the name uranium for the element discovered. The chemist wrote In old times only seven planets were known and thought to correspond to seven metals, and according to this tradition the new metal should rightfully he named after the planet which has been recently discovered. It was the planet Uranus discovered in 1781 by the English astronomer Herschel. After that it became fashionable to name newly discovered chemical elements after celestial bodies. Uranium had been included in the list of simple substances and made its way to chemical textbooks, hut metallic uranium remained unobtainable for a long time to come. There were even scientists who were doubtful about the discovery of the German chemist. Six years after Klaproth s death (1817),... 

Planets and other celestial bodies have been used to name some elements. For example, palladium, which was discovered in 1803, is named after Pallas, or the second asteroid that was itself discovered just one year earlier in 1802. Hehum is named after helios, the Greek name for the sun. It was first observed in the spectrum of the sun in 1868, and it was not until 1895 that it was first identified in terrestrial samples. 

Many elements have been named after celestial bodies (Table 3.12). Table 3.12 Elements named after celestial bodies... 

Philalethes enumerates three Elements only Air, Water, and Earth. Things are not formed by the mixture of these Elements, for "dissimilar things can never really unite." By analysing the properties of the three Elements, Philalethes reduced them finally to one, namely, Water. "Water," he says, "is the first principle of all things." "Earth is the fundamental Element in which all bodies grow and are preserved. Air is the medium into which they grow, and by means of which the celestial virtues are communicated to them."... 

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