Very reflective, white metal. m.p. 2310 ºC; 4190 ºF b.p. 3900 ºC; 7052 ºF density 12.41 g/cc; 774.73 pound/cubic foot	memory peg
	1844 Karl Karlovich Klaus, Estonia
	Ruthenia = Ukraine, sometimes is meant Russia (Latin) named 1827 by Gottfried Wilhelm Osann (he declined his discovery in 1829)

The Polish chemist Jedrzej Sniadecki (1768-1838) at Vilnius University had isolated Ruthenium in 1807, but his work was not ratified. He called it vestium after the Roman goddess Vesta. In the same year Wilhelm Olbers found the new planetoide and named it "Vesta". Sniadecki's brother Jan (Rector of the Vilnius University) was astronomer and mathematican and he discovered independently to Olbers the planetoide "Pallas" (cf. Palladium).

In 1824, extensive deposits of native platinum were discovered in the Ural Mountains in Russia. Soon Russia became the main producer of that metal, developing and improving its metallurgical industry. Gottfried Wilhelm Osann (Готфрид Вильгельм Озанн, 1797-1866), a Russian scientist from German origin working at Imperial University of Dorpat (now Tartu University, Estonia), was one of the scholars studying the insoluble residues of Platinum. sent in 1827 three samples of minerals to Berzelius. While Berzelius found no unusual metals, Osann thought he found three new metals, which he named Pluranium ("Pluran" abbreviation for Platina and Ural), Polinium ("Poliniy", from Greek polia [polin] = greyhaired, for it's residue color, and Ruthenium (named after Russia).

Especially Osann marked in his work the meaning of Ruthenium. However, he is not recognised as the discoverer of the elements for:

• Berzelius has shown that Osann's Ruthenium was a mixture of Titanium and silica acids with impurities of Iron and Zirconium.
• About Poliniy Osann itself supposed that it was impure Iridium oxide.
• Pluran was the most promissing one from Berzelius's view, but Osann was not able to obtain it again for more detailed research. Repeatability is base of any chemical expirement.
• Osann himself declined from his discovery publically in 1829.

Karl Karlovich Klaus (Карл Карлович Клаус, 1796-1864) started an investigation in 1840 to settle the discrepancy between Berzelius and Osann about Ruthenium. In 1844 he showed that Osann's Ruthenium oxide was very impure and that it contained a new metal. He obtained 6 grammes of the pure new element and named it Ruthenium after Russia (as he wrote in his book "Химические исследования остатков уральской платиновой руды и металла рутения" [Chemical research of Ural platinum' ore and ruthenium metal] published a year later in 1845 (note). Klaus decided to give the name Ruthenium appropriate for new element, since Russia was the major producer of these metals and in recognition of Osann's work. He sent samples to Berzelius in 1845 resulting in Berzelius's announcement that Ruthenium is indeed a new element. Therefore Klaus is generally recognized as the discoverer of element 44.

Ruthenium - Bear Creek
Native ruthenium.
Bear Creek, Arizona, USA.
Picture width 4 mm.

Photo by Thomas Witzke.

Ruthenia

Ruthenia, the Latinized form of the word Russia, was applied to Ukraine in the Middle Ages when the princes of Galich briefly assumed the title kings of Ruthenia. Later, in Austria-Hungary, the term Ruthenians was used to designate the Ukrainian population of West Ukraine, which included Galicia, Bukovina, and Carpathian Ukraine. After 1918 the term Ruthenia was applied only to the easternmost province of Czechoslovakia, which was also known as Carpathian Ukraine, or by its Czech name, Podkarpatská Rus [Sub-Carpathian Russia], after World War II the region came to the Soviet-Union and is presently part of Ukraine. (Slider.com Encyclopedia).

The use of the name "Ruthenia" for the whole of the Russian Empire — including the Ural Mountiains — is very rare. Om maps of the sixteenth to eighteenth century usually the Latin names "Moscovia" and "Russia" were used. Perhaps neither Osann and Klaus, both of German birth, knew the correct Latin form for Russia? (See also: An Understanding of the Terms 'Ruthenia' and 'Ruthenians').

• Platinum. Gmelins Handbuch der anorganische Chemie, 8. Aufl.; System-Nummer 68 (1951), Pt. A. pp. 13-14.
• Mary Elvira Weeks, Discovery of the Elements, comp. rev. by Heny M. Leicester (Easton, Pa.: Journal of Chemical Education, 1968), pp. 418-425.
• Hödrejärv, Helvi, "Gottfried Wilhelm Osann and ruthenium". Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, Chemistry 53, 3 (September 2004), 125–144 (abstract)

• E-mail by Timur Labutin, Chemistry department of the L.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, 22 June 2002.
• Guestbook entry by Krzysztof W. Zieliński, 2 January 2003.