Holmium discovery

Dysprosium - the atomic number is 66 and the chemical symbol is Dy. The name derives from the Greek dysprositos for hard to get at , due to the difficulty in separating this rare earth element from a holmium mineral in which it was found. Discovery was first claimed by the Swiss chemist Marc Delafontaine in the mineral samarskite in 1878 and he called it philippia. Philippia was subsequently found to be a mixture of terbium and erbium. Dysprosium was later discovered in a holmium sample by the French chemist Paul-Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudron in 1886, who was then credited with the discovery. It was first isolated by the French chemist George Urbain in 1906. 

In the 1800s chemists searched for new elements by fractionating the oxides of rare-earths. Carl Gustaf Mosander s experiments indicated that pure ceria ores were actually contaminated with oxides of lanthanum, a new element. Mosander also fractionated the oxides of yttria into two new elements, erbium and terbium. In 1878 J. Louis Soret (1827—1890) and Marc Delafontaine (1837-1911), through spectroscopic analysis, found evidence of the element holmium, but it was contaminated by the rare-earth dysprosia. Since they could not isolate it and were unable to separate holmium as a pure rare-earth, they did not receive credit for its discovery. 

In 1879 holmium was discovered, independently, by Per Theodor Cleve (1840—1905), who managed to isolate holmium from the other rare-earths. Cleve received credit for the discovery of holmium and named it for the Latin word holmia, which means Stockholm, a city in his native country, Sweden. 

Cleve s fame rests chiefly, however, on his discoveries among the rare earths. After obtaining some erbia from which all the ytterbia and scandia had been removed, and after noticing that the atomic weight of the erbium was not constant, he succeeded in resolving the earth into three constituents erbia, holmia, and thulia (21). The absorption bands of holmium had already been noticed by the Swiss chemists M. Delafontaine... 

In 1879, Per Teodor Cleve was studying an earth taken from yttria called erbia. Erbia had been regarded as a new element for some time. But Cleve separated erbia into three different parts. He called them erbia, holmia, and thulia. Holmia is the earth from which the element holmium comes. For his work, Cleve is given credit for the discovery of holmium. 

In Cleve s time, chemical equipment was not very advanced. Chemists usually could not prepare very pure samples of materials. Ten years after the discovery of holmium, chemists realized it was actually holmium mixed with another new element, dysprosium. 

The name is from the Latin Holmia for the city of Stockholm, the region where the original minerals were found. The discovery of holmium was part of the complex yttria rare-earths research. A new element was suggested by Jacques-Louis Soret (1827-1890) in 1878 and was named by Per Theodor Cleve (1840-1905) in 1880 its oxide was isolated in 1886 by Lecoq de Boisbaudran. The pure metal was isolated in 1911 by 0. Holmberg. It is a rare element and does not occur in pure form in nature. The silvery metal has unusual magnetic properties but no current commercial uses. 

In 1879 the chemical individuality of erbium freed from impurities was proven beyond any doubt and that year rather than 1843 can be considered to be the date of its discovery. Thulium turned out to be pure as well, but holmium s real birth was still ahead. So the yttrium tree branched copi-... 

Discovery Paul-Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in France in 1886 found a new element in the REM holmium, earlier discovered by Cleve. The discovery was hard work (dysprositos in Creek), so the new element was given the name dysprosium. 

Discovery During 1878-79, PerT. Cleve in Uppsala discovered that erbium contained two other elements. He named them thulium after the old Roman name Thulia for the Furthest North and holmium after Stockholm. Delafontaine and Soret in Switzerland had in fact found lines of a foreign element during the spectral analysis of erbium in 1878. This element, erbium-X or element-X, appeared to be identical with holmium. In tables of discoverers Delafontaine and Soret are mentioned alongside Cleve. 

Per T. Cleve, Uppsala Marc Delafontaine, Geneva Louis Soret, Geneva Holmium 1878 Spectroscopy was invented about 1850. It was of great benefit in REM discoveries... 

Nordenskiold (1832-1901), bom in Finland, and known for the discovery of the North-East Passage, was in exile in Sweden from 1857 after a struggle with the Russian authorities in his homeland In Stockholm, at the age of 26, he became the superintendent of the Mineralogical Department of the Swedish Royal Museum. Nordenskiold held the office until his death. He found the uranium mineral cleveite, mentioned above, and named it in honor of Professor P. T. Cleve, the discoverer in 1878 of the rare earth element holmium. 

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