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Discovery of Three Elements Predicted by Mendeleev’s Table: Gallium, Scandium, and Germanium

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150 Years of the Periodic Table

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Abstract

The 1869 publication of Dmitri Mendeleev’s systematic table contained lacunae left by the author to signal the presumed existence of not-yet-discovered simple bodies. Three of the missing elements were discovered within a span of time from 1875 to 1886: gallium, scandium, and germanium. Aside from the great psychological impact, they served to decisively change the attitude of the scientific world with respect to the validity of the periodic system of the elements. Although Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, Lars Fredrik Nilson, and Clemens Alexander Winkler are the acknowledged discoverers of these three elements, respectively, questions arise about the nature of discovery itself. Can their discovery be attributed to Mendeleev, who speculated on and predicted their existence? Must discovery be attributed to those who only detected the elements, or to those who isolated the oxides of the elements, or to those who isolated the free elements themselves? Arguments can be made for recognizing all of these cases.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For more on Meyer, see Gisela Boeck’s Chap. 8 in this volume.

  2. 2.

    Behind Mendeleev’s right shoulder is shown the final version of his periodic table dated 17 February 1869. The inscription in Hungarian directly under his name reads “the creator of the periodic table.”

  3. 3.

    Present authors’ italics. Freund’s use of the word “system” is entirely consonant with Mendeleev’s own idea. As Van Tiggelen, et al. point out, there are thousands of periodic tables, but only one periodic system from which Mendeleev inferred his law [16].

  4. 4.

    Mendeleev explained the use of the prefix eka thus: ‘In order not to introduce new names for the expected elements, I shall call them by the name of the nearest lowest analogue from among odd- or even-numbered elements of the same group, adding Sanskrit numerals to the name of the element.

  5. 5.

    See Vera Mainz’s Chap. 14 in this volume, “Mary Elvira Weeks and Discovery of the Elements.”

  6. 6.

    Lecoq de Boisbaudran had some general theories about the relationship between spectra (both luminescence and spark) and the atomic weights of the elements. To test them, he made a detailed study of the spectra of 35 elements and published them in a single volume in 1874 [29].

  7. 7.

    All translations are the work of the authors.

  8. 8.

    “Blende” can mean any of several minerals, mainly metallic sulfides. In the context of this experiment, sphalerite, or zinc sulfide, often called zinc blende, is meant.

  9. 9.

    The details of Nilson’s life and work are drawn mainly from this source.

  10. 10.

    Rare earth elements are often defined as elements 57 through 71, the lanthanides, but strictly speaking, yttrium and scandium should also be included due to their similar chemical behavior and placement in group 3 of the periodic table. See Chap. 11 of this volume for more on the rare earth elements. The definition of an “earth” evolved over the course of the eighteenth century from a generalized mineral lacking taste and solubility in water to, by the end of the century, a difficultly reducible metal oxide. These oxides often take the suffix -ia; for example, erbium oxide is called erbia, thorium oxide is thoria, etc.

  11. 11.

    Scandium has since been shown to have a hexagonal close packed structure.

  12. 12.

    Sefström and Gahn discovered vanadium and manganese, respectively.

  13. 13.

    Didymium was still considered an element in the 1860s.

  14. 14.

    The chemical formula of argyrodite is Ag8GeS6. A first, incomplete, description of this mineral was given in 1831 by CGA von Weissenbach (1797–1846) and in 1832 by JFA Breithaupt. See ref. [59] for the original citations.

  15. 15.

    For a detailed description of the exact chemical reactions involved in germanium’s discovery, please see ref. [62].

  16. 16.

    Meyer, Mendeleev, and Winkler corresponded voluminously on this point before they all realized germanium’s true identity.

  17. 17.

    In German, silicon is “silicium,” so Winkler’s choice of a name ending in -ium for the new nonmetal was not out of line with some other nonmetals like helium, selenium and tellurium.

  18. 18.

    It is interesting to note that in this publication Lecoq used the symbol “Gr” for germanium.

  19. 19.

    This work is now available in a modern rendition in a collection edited by William Jensen [91].

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Acknowledgements

Our great gratitude goes to Sally B. Mitchell, our wonderful colleague in the ACS Division of the History of Chemistry, for helping make the entire panorama of the periodic system accessible to us over the entire time it took us to develop this chapter. We also thank Dr. Soňa Štrbaňová and Dr. William B. Ashworth, Jr. for helping us access some important reference material. We are also grateful to the editors of this volume, Gregory S. Girolami, Carmen Giunta, and Vera V. Mainz for the opportunity to undertake this challenging task and for their painstaking guidance. Special thanks are due to Dr. Girolami and the anonymous reviewers whose very helpful and detailed criticism made this chapter so much better.

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  1. ChemSource, Inc., 39 Willow Drive, New Rochelle, NY, 10805, USA

    Mary Virginia Orna

  2. Department of Chemistry “U. Schiff”, University of Florence, via della Lastruccia, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy

    Marco Fontani

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  1. Department of Chemistry, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY, USA

    Carmen J. Giunta

  2. School of Chemical Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Vera V. Mainz

  3. School of Chemical Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Gregory S. Girolami

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Orna, M.V., Fontani, M. (2021). Discovery of Three Elements Predicted by Mendeleev’s Table: Gallium, Scandium, and Germanium. In: Giunta, C.J., Mainz, V.V., Girolami, G.S. (eds) 150 Years of the Periodic Table. Perspectives on the History of Chemistry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67910-1_10

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