Notice to the reader

The language of chemistry has its own alphabet. Its letters are symbols of chemical elements the number of combinations of letters, words composed of them, is infinite— the endless variety of chemical compounds. More than four million chemical compounds are known at present and this number increases each week by six thousand. Apparently,. this word-building in chemistry is a non-stop process. 

Individual letters or elements are much fewer in number today there are only one hundred and seven of them. Several thousand years were required to compile the alphabet of the language of chemistry but most of the letters were deciphered only during the last two hundred years. It was during this short span of time that chemistry emerged as a science. 

All chemical compounds that constitute living and inorganic matter are diverse combinations of eighty-odd elements. The remaining known elements are practically not found in nature. Scientists created them artificially by means of nuclear reactions. More new elements can be obtained in this manner and we do not know how many of them. But it is quite clear that the chemical alphabet is not complete yet. 

In this book we shall describe how the alphabet of chemistry has been designed and how the inquisitive mind of the researchers discovered new chemical elements, one after another. 

Books have been written about practically all chemical elements—enough to stock a great library. They describe minerals and ores containing chemical elements, processes of their extraction, physical and chemical properties of the elements, and their u.ses. Many elements are surprisingly abundant they can be used in the widely disparate and unex pected fields for the good of mankind. Almost every element has an important role to play in today s advanced science and technology. 

---