"native solid elements occur in alloys, such as that of iron and nickel. The history of the discovery and use of the elements began with primitive human societies that found native elements like carbon, sulfur, copper and gold. Later civilizations extracted elemental copper, tin, lead and iron from their ores by smelting, using charcoal. Alchemists and chemists subsequently identified many more; all of the naturally occurring elements were known by 1950. The properties of the chemical elements are summarized in the periodic table, which organizes the elements by increasing atomic number into rows (""periods"") in which the columns (""groups"") share"
"Germanium Germanium is a chemical element with symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is a lustrous, hard, grayish-white metalloid in the carbon group, chemically similar to its group neighbors tin and silicon. Pure germanium is a semiconductor with an appearance similar to elemental silicon. Like silicon, germanium naturally reacts and forms complexes with oxygen in nature. Because it seldom appears in high concentration, germanium was discovered comparatively late in the history of chemistry. Germanium ranks near fiftieth in relative abundance of the elements in the Earth's crust. In 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev predicted its existence and some of its properties"
"copper (German: Kupfer). This German equivalent of ""copper-nickel"" was used as early as 1694 (other old German synonyms are ""Rotnickelkies"" and ""Arsennickel""). In 1751, Baron Axel Fredrik Cronstedt was attempting to extract copper from kupfernickel mineral, and obtained instead a white metal that he called after the spirit, nickel. In modern German, Kupfernickel and Kupfer-Nickel designates the alloy Cupronickel. The names subsequently given to the ore, ""nickeline"" from F. S. Beudant, 1832, and ""niccolite,"" from J. D. Dana, 1868, refer to the presence of nickel; in Latin, ""niccolum."" In 1971, the International Mineralogical Association recommended use of the name nickeline"
"German for ""wolf's foam"", how the mineral was known to Saxon miners. The name ""tungsten"" means ""heavy stone"", a description of scheelite, another mineral in which tungsten is found. The German names for hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen are ""Wasserstoff"" (water substance), ""Sauerstoff"" (acid substance), and ""Stickstoff"" (smothering substance). Russian names for hydrogen, oxygen and carbon are ""vodorod"", ""kislorod"" and ""uglerod"" (generating water, acid and coal respectively). The corresponding Chinese names are ""qīngqì"" (light gas), ""yǎngqì"" (nourishing gas), and ""dànqì"" (diluting gas). A scheme for translating chemical names into Chinese was developed by John Fryer and Xu Shou in 1871. Where"
"Germanite Germanite is a rare copper iron germanium sulfide mineral, CuFeGeS. It was first discovered in 1922, and named for its germanium content. It is only a minor source of this important semiconductor element, which is mainly derived from the processing of the zinc sulfide mineral sphalerite. Germanite contains gallium, zinc, molybdenum, arsenic, and vanadium as impurities. Its type locality is the Tsumeb Mine in Namibia where it occurs in a hydrothermal polymetallic ore deposit in dolostone in association with renierite, pyrite, tennantite, enargite, galena, sphalerite, digenite, bornite and chalcopyrite. It has also been reported from Argentina, Armenia, Bulgaria, Cuba,"
"to be eka-antimony, but was soon convinced that it was instead eka-silicon. Before Winkler published his results on the new element, he decided that he would name his element ""neptunium"", since the recent discovery of planet Neptune in 1846 had similarly been preceded by mathematical predictions of its existence. However, the name ""neptunium"" had already been given to another proposed chemical element (though not the element that today bears the name neptunium, which was discovered in 1940). So instead, Winkler named the new element ""germanium"" (from the Latin word, ""Germania"", for Germany) in honor of his homeland. Argyrodite proved empirically"
"attempts always ended in failure due to high smelting temperatures needed to reduce nickel. In Germany this deceptive mineral came to be known as ""kupfernickel"", literally ""copper demon"". The Swedish alchemist Baron Axel Fredrik Cronstedt (who had been trained by Georg Brandt, the discoverer of the nickel-like metal cobalt) realized that there was probably a new metal hiding within the kupfernickel ore, and in 1751 he succeeded in smelting kupfernickel to produce a previously unknown (except in certain meteorites) silvery white, iron-like metal. Logically, Cronstedt named his new metal after the ""nickel"" part of ""kupfernickel"". Azurite Azurite is a soft,"
"exchange for his elixir formula, which he claimed he had recently discovered; the offer was turned down. According to Stahl, Dippel and the pigment maker Diesbach used potassium carbonate contaminated with this oil in producing red dyes. To their surprise, they obtained a blue pigment ""Berliner Blau"", also called ""Preussisch Blau"" or ""Prussian blue"". There are claims that during his stay at Castle Frankenstein, he practiced alchemy and anatomy. He was allegedly working with nitroglycerin, which led to the destruction of a tower at the Castle Frankenstein. But this seems to be a modern myth, for it is an anachronism."
"Copernicium Copernicium is a synthetic chemical element with symbol Cn and atomic number 112. It is an extremely radioactive element, and can only be created in a laboratory. The most stable known isotope, copernicium-285, has a half-life of approximately 29 seconds. Copernicium was first created in 1996 by the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research near Darmstadt, Germany. It is named after the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. In the periodic table of the elements, copernicium is a d-block transactinide element and a group 12 element. During reactions with gold, it has been shown to be an extremely volatile metal, so"
"either called it ""element 108"", with the symbol of ""E108"", ""(108)"", or even simply ""108"", or used the proposed name ""hassium"". The name ""hassium"" was proposed by Peter Armbruster and his colleagues, the officially recognised German discoverers, in September 1992. It is derived from the Latin name ""Hassia"" for the German state of Hesse where the institute is located. In 1994, IUPAC Commission on Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry recommended that element 108 be named ""hahnium"" (Hn) after the German physicist Otto Hahn so that elements named after Hahn and Lise Meitner (meitnerium) would be next to each other, honoring their"
"first came to the attention of the media, but no single substance was found in these items. A sample of radioactive material was seized by German police in May 1994. This consisted of a complex mixture of elements, including about 10% by weight plutonium, with the remainder consisting of 61% mercury, 11% antimony, 6% oxygen, 2% iodine and 1.6% gallium. A formula reported for the powder component of the mixture was HgSbO (mercury(II) cyclopyrorthoantimonate), with some of the mercury present in its pure metallic form. The reason why somebody had assembled this complex mixture of chemicals is unknown; equally puzzling"
"niobium, occurs in the minerals tantalite, columbite and coltan (a mix of columbite and tantalite). Tungsten, also known as wolfram, is a chemical element with the chemical symbol W and atomic number 74. The word ""tungsten"" comes from the Swedish language ""tung sten"" directly translatable to ""heavy stone"", though the name is ""volfram"" in Swedish to distinguish it from Scheelite, in Swedish alternatively named ""tungsten"". A hard, rare metal under standard conditions when uncombined, tungsten is found naturally on Earth only in chemical compounds. It was identified as a new element in 1781, and first isolated as a metal in"
"from its position on his periodic table, and called the element ekasilicon. Nearly two decades later, in 1886, Clemens Winkler found the new element along with silver and sulfur, in a rare mineral called argyrodite. Although the new element somewhat resembled arsenic and antimony in appearance, the combining ratios in compounds agreed with Mendeleev's predictions for a relative of silicon. Winkler named the element after his country, Germany. Today, germanium is mined primarily from sphalerite (the primary ore of zinc), though germanium is also recovered commercially from silver, lead, and copper ores. Elemental germanium is used as a semiconductor in"
"noting it can form alloys with metals such as iron and copper. The common oxide of silicon (SiO) is weakly acidic. Germanium is a shiny, mostly unreactive grey-white solid with a density of 5.323 g/cm (about two-thirds that of iron), and is hard (MH 6.0) and brittle. It melts at 938.25 °C (cf. silver 961.78 °C) and boils at 2833 °C. Germanium has a diamond cubic structure (CN 4). It is a semiconductor with a band gap of about 0.67 eV. Germanium has a moderate ionisation energy (762 kJ/mol), moderate electron affinity (119 kJ/mol), and moderate electronegativity (2.01). It is"
"""tungsten"" (from the Swedish ""tung sten"", ""heavy stone"") is used in English, French, and many other languages as the name of the element, but not in the Nordic countries. ""Tungsten"" was the old Swedish name for the mineral scheelite. ""Wolfram"" (or ""volfram"") is used in most European (especially Germanic and Slavic) languages and is derived from the mineral wolframite, which is the origin of the chemical symbol W. The name ""wolframite"" is derived from German """"wolf rahm"""" (""wolf soot"" or ""wolf cream""), the name given to tungsten by Johan Gottschalk Wallerius in 1747. This, in turn, derives from """"lupi spuma"""","
"General Electric's attempt to patent it, overturning granted in 1913 to William D. Coolidge. Tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with symbol W and atomic number 74. The name ""tungsten"" comes from the former Swedish name for the tungstate mineral ""scheelite"", ""tung sten"" or ""heavy stone"". Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively combined with other elements in chemical compounds rather than alone. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolated as a metal in 1783. Its important ores include wolframite and scheelite. The free element is remarkable for its"
"Nickel silver Nickel silver, Maillechort, German silver, Argentan, new silver, nickel brass, albata, alpacca, is a copper alloy with nickel and often zinc. The usual formulation is 60% copper, 20% nickel and 20% zinc. Nickel silver is named due to its silvery appearance, but it contains no elemental silver unless plated. The name ""German silver"" refers to its development by 19th-century German metalworkers from the Chinese alloy known as paktong (白銅) (cupronickel). All modern, commercially important nickel silvers (such as those standardized under ASTM B122) contain significant amounts of zinc, and are sometimes considered a subset of brass. Nickel silver"
"Tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with symbol W and atomic number 74. The name ""tungsten"" comes from the former Swedish name for the tungstate mineral ""scheelite"", ""tung sten"" or ""heavy stone"". Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively combined with other elements in chemical compounds rather than alone. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolated as a metal in 1783. Its important ores include wolframite and scheelite. The free element is remarkable for its robustness, especially the fact that it has the highest melting point of all the"
"""Kupfernickel"" or ""Old Nick's Copper"". This ""Devil's Copper"" could not be extracted with the technology of the time. Cronstedt, however, was able to prove that the trouble refiners faced was due to an unknown element which he named nickel. Szilva ultimately chose the 1951 Canadian nickel, minted by the Royal Canadian Mint in 1951, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the isolation of nickel as a metal, to show where Sudbury's wealth came from, and to be a lasting tribute to the men and women who mined and processed the minerals in the Sudbury Basin. In short, the nickel was"
"the ""Sechser"" (), deriving from the former duodecimal division of the groschen. All four coins had their value imprinted on the obverse and an oak on the reverse. The coins of the Mark der DDR were made of aluminium, except for the 20 pfennigs coin, which was made of an aluminium copper alloy. After the introduction of the euro, some, mainly older, Germans tend to use the term pfennig instead of cent for the copper-coloured coins (and the term Groschen for the 10-cents-coin). The pfennig ligature is defined and coded in Unicode as follows: Pfennig The pfennig (; pfennigs or"
"Using one of the world's largest particle accelerators, scientists working at the Heavy Ion Research facility in Darmstadt, Germany, have so far confirmed the existence of element 112, which they have named copernicium, after Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus. These physicists have become the new chemists – testing the foundations of the periodic table, and hence our understanding of the universe, in light of new discoveries. In addition to producing new elements, scientists are also attempting to discern their properties. Copernicium is found to be a volatile metal that would be liquid at room temperature if enough were ever made –"
"Hyalophane Hyalophane or jaloallofane is a crystalline mineral, part of the feldspar group of tectosilicates. It is considered a barium-rich potassium feldspar. Its chemical formula is (K,Ba)[Al(Si,Al)SiO], and it has a hardness of 6 – . The name ""hyalophane"" comes from the Greek ""hyalos"", meaning ""glass"", and ""phanos"" meaning ""to appear"". An occurrence of hyalophane was discovered in 1855 in Lengenbach Quarry, Imfield, Binn valley, municipality of Binn, Canton of Valais, Switzerland. The mineral is found predominantly in Europe, with occurrences in Switzerland, Australia, Bosnia, Germany, Japan, New Jersey, and the west coast of North America. Hyalophane may be found"
"chemical element darmstadtium (atomic number: 110), named after the city in 2003. This makes Darmstadt one of only eight settlements with elements named after them (the others being Ytterby in Sweden (four elements); Stockholm in Sweden (holmium); Strontian in Scotland; Copenhagen in Denmark (whose Latin name gives hafnium); Paris (whose Latin name gives lutetium); Berkeley, California; and Dubna in Russia). Various other elements, including meitnerium (atomic number: 109) (1982), hassium (atomic number: 108) (1984), roentgenium (atomic number: 111) (1994) and copernicium (atomic number: 112) (1996) were also synthesized in the Darmstadt facility. The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) of the"
"Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire), Finland, France, Greece, Japan, Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), Russia and the United States. Germanite Germanite is a rare copper iron germanium sulfide mineral, CuFeGeS. It was first discovered in 1922, and named for its germanium content. It is only a minor source of this important semiconductor element, which is mainly derived from the processing of the zinc sulfide mineral sphalerite. Germanite contains gallium, zinc, molybdenum, arsenic, and vanadium as impurities. Its type locality is the Tsumeb Mine in Namibia where it occurs in a hydrothermal polymetallic ore deposit in dolostone in association with renierite, pyrite,"
"(1994), and copernicium (1996) were discovered. The existence of the following elements were also confirmed at GSI Centre for Heavy Ion Research: nihonium (2012), flerovium (2009), moscovium (2012), livermorium (2010), and tennessine (2012). The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) is an international accelerator facility under construction. Darmstadt is also the seat of the world's oldest pharmaceutical company, Merck, which is the city's largest employer. Darmstadt was formerly the capital of a sovereign country, the Grand Duchy of Hesse and its successor, the People's State of Hesse, a federal state of Germany. As the capital of an increasingly prosperous"
"Copper Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu (from ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orange color. Copper is used as a conductor of heat and electricity, as a building material, and as a constituent of various metal alloys, such as sterling silver used in jewelry, cupronickel used to make marine hardware and coins, and constantan used in strain gauges and thermocouples for temperature measurement. Copper is one of the few metals that can occur in"
"in Germany, as an impurity in zinc carbonate. Stromeyer found the new element as an impurity in zinc carbonate (calamine), and, for 100 years, Germany remained the only important producer of the metal. The metal was named after the Latin word for calamine, because it was found in this zinc ore. Stromeyer noted that some impure samples of calamine changed color when heated but pure calamine did not. He was persistent in studying these results and eventually isolated cadmium metal by roasting and reducing the sulfide. The potential for cadmium yellow as pigment was recognized in the 1840s, but the"
"contained mostly gold and an unknown metal very similar to antimony. After a thorough investigation which lasted for three years and consisted of more than fifty tests, Müller determined the specific gravity of the mineral and noted the radish-like odor of the white smoke which passed off when the new metal was heated, the red color which the metal imparts to sulfuric acid, and the black precipitate which this solution gives when diluted with water. Nevertheless, he was not able to identify this metal and gave it the names ""aurum paradoxium"" and ""metallum problematicum"", as it did not show the"
"Neodymium Neodymium is a chemical element with symbol Nd and atomic number 60. It is a soft silvery metal that tarnishes in air. Neodymium was discovered in 1885 by the Austrian chemist Carl Auer von Welsbach. It is present in significant quantities in the ore minerals monazite and bastnäsite. Neodymium is not found naturally in metallic form or unmixed with other lanthanides, and it is usually refined for general use. Although neodymium is classed as a rare earth, it is a fairly common element, no rarer than cobalt, nickel, or copper, and is widely distributed in the Earth's crust. Most"
"Cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. Like nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal. Cobalt-based blue pigments (cobalt blue) have been used since ancient times for jewelry and paints, and to impart a distinctive blue tint to glass, but the color was later thought by alchemists to be due to the known metal bismuth. Miners had long used the name ""kobold ore"" (German"
"defense stockpile in 1987. Germanium differs from silicon in that the supply is limited by the availability of exploitable sources, while the supply of silicon is limited only by production capacity since silicon comes from ordinary sand and quartz. While silicon could be bought in 1998 for less than $10 per kg, the price of germanium was almost $800 per kg. Under standard conditions, germanium is a brittle, silvery-white, semi-metallic element. This form constitutes an allotrope known as ""α-germanium"", which has a metallic luster and a diamond cubic crystal structure, the same as diamond. At pressures above 120 kbar, it"
"Antimony Antimony is a chemical element with symbol Sb (from ) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (SbS). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient times and were powdered for use as medicine and cosmetics, often known by the Arabic name, kohl. Metallic antimony was also known, but it was erroneously identified as lead upon its discovery. The earliest known description of the metal in the West was written in 1540 by Vannoccio Biringuccio. For some time, China has been the largest producer of antimony and its"
"the name Georg Agricola used for the element in 1546, which translates into English as ""wolf's froth"" and is a reference to the large amounts of tin consumed by the mineral during its extraction. Tungsten is found mainly in the minerals wolframite (iron–manganese tungstate (Fe,Mn)WO, which is a solid solution of the two minerals ferberite FeWO, and hübnerite MnWO) and scheelite (calcium tungstate (CaWO). Other tungsten minerals range in their level of abundance from moderate to very rare, and have almost no economical value. Tungsten forms chemical compounds in oxidation states from -II to VI. Higher oxidation states, always as"