Other elements isolated with the aid of potassium and sodium

Other elements isolated with the aid of potassium and sodium 

When the Abbe Hauy pointed out the close similarity and probable identity of beryl and the emerald, Vauquelin analyzed them carefully, and found in 1798 that they are indeed identical, and that they contain a new earth, which he named glucina, but which is now known as beryllia The metal was isolated thirty years later by Wohler and Bussy independently. Boron was isolated in 1808 by Gay-Lussac and Thenard in France and by Davy in England by reduction of boric acid with potassium. Although amorphous silicon was prepared by Berzelius in 1824, the crystalline form of it was not obtained until about thirty years later, when Henri Sainte-Clarie DeviUe prepared it by an electrolytic method Aluminum was isolated in 1825 by the Danish physicist, Oersted, and two years later Wohler prepared it by a better method. Successful commercial processes for the manufacture of this important metal were perfected by Henri Sainte-Claiie Deville, by Charles Martin Hall, and by Dr. Paul L. T. Heroult. 

Pliny the Elder realized that beryl and the emerald are closely related (56). Beryls, it is thought, are of the same nature as the smaragdus, or at least closely analogous. India produces them, and they are rarely to 

The correct composition of beryl and the emerald was not known until the close of the eighteenth century, when the Abb6 R.-J. Hauy pointed out the remarkable similarity in crystalline structure, hardness, and density of a beryl from Limoges and an emerald from Peru, and N.-L. Vauquelin discovered that they both contain as an essential constituent glucinum, or beryllium, and that the emerald, except for the presence in it of a little chromium, has the same composition as the beryl (25,27,91). 

The latter wrote in 1798 Klaproth had no sooner discovered the different substances with which he has enriched the science, but they were found in various other bodies and if I may refer to my own processes, it will be seen that after I had determined the characters of chrome, first found in the native red lead, I easily recognized it in the emerald and the ruby. The same has happened with regard to the earth of the beryl. I have likewise detected it in the emerald in which, nevertheless, it was overlooked by Klaproth and myself in our first analysis so difficult it is to be aware of the presence of a new substance, particularly when it possesses some properties resembling those already known. .. (23). 

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