The Discovery and Naming of Elements

Several elements were never officially discovered, or at least their discoverers are unknown in the annals of history. These elements date to a time period between prehistoric times and the Middle Ages. Their names were originally in Latin, and their symbols today still reflect that origin. Lead, for example, was known as plumbum, hence its symbol Pb. Until fairly recently, most pipes were made of lead, from which was derived the vford plumbing. 

The most important property of a metal is its ability to conduct electricity. 

In ancient and medieval times, sodium and potassium were known only in compounds like rock salt (NaCl) and potash (K COj). Sodium and potassium were not actually isolated as elements until the early 1800s. Other elements, such as carbon and sulfur (S), were known to ancient people but were not recognized by them as being elements. 

Beginning in the Middle Ages, alchemists began to discover new elements, including arsenic (As), bismuth (Bi), and phosphorus (P). The pace at which new elements were discovered accelerated in the eighteenth century, and many elements were added to the periodic table during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Until the twentieth century, all new elements had been discovered in naturally occurring materials. 

The following elements were known in ancient times  

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Similar controversies were to plague the discovery and naming of elements 105,106, and 107. lUPAC felt compelled to establish a working group in 1987 to assess claims to priority and to pronounce on nomenclature. By 1994, however, the question of what to call the new human-made elements was still in disarray. 

The work at the GSI laboratory is the most definitive, and our work at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and the work at Dubna will have to be confirmed in order to allow these two groups to be recognized as participants in the discovery and naming of element 110. 

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