Elementymology & Elements Multidict

memory peg	Gray metal which can be lustrous if polished melting point 1278.5 °C; 2333 °F boiling point 2970 °C; 5378 °F density 1.85 g/cc; 115.37 pounds/cubic foot
1798 Nicolas-Louis Vauquelin, France (oxide) 1828 Friedrich Wöhler and Antoine Bussy (metal)
βηρυλλος (bèryllos) = beryl (Greek) named by Martin Heinrich Klaproth

At the end of the eighteenth century several chemists were interested in the chemical composition of emerald and beryl, two very similar gems.

Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1743-1817) analyzed a Peruvian emerald generously donated by Prince Dimitri Gallitzin. Johann Jacob Bindheim (1750-1825) and others analyzed beryl. René-Just Haüy (1743-1822) was struck particularly by the similar crystal geometry between the two gems. In 1798 Haüy requested Nicolas-Louis Vauquelin (1763-1829) to compare emerald and beryl. His analysis found that both gems were identical except for a little Chromium in emerald. He read his paper for the French Academy on 26 pluviose an VI (= 15 February 1798). Following the suggestion of the editors of the Annales de Chimie et de Physique he called the new earth Glucina, since its salts had a sweet taste (note). This name is derived from the Greek word γλυκυς [glykys] = sweet.

	silex (silica)	argil (alumina)	iron oxide	lime	glucina
Emerald (Klaproth)	66.25%	31.25%	0.50%	-	-
Beryl (Bindheim)	64%	27%	2%	8%	-
Emerald=Beryl (Vauquelin)	64.6%	14%	-	2.56%	13%
[after Trapp]

In 1808, Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829) did experiments for the decomposition of alumine, silex, zircone, and glucine. He failed to isolate the metals in these, as he reported in his paper for the Royal Society of London on 30 June 1808, but he suggested names for the metals (note):

Cf. Silicium, Aluminium, and Zirconium

With Glucium Davy altered simply the name of the earth into that of a metal. However, noting that Yttria salts are also sweet, Klaproth preferred to call the new earth beryllia, after Βηρυλλος [bèryllos], Greek for beryl. The earth would be reducible to the element Beryllium. Friedrich Wöhler (1800-1882) (note) and Antoine-Alexandre-Brutus Bussy (1794-1882) (note) isolated independently of each others the first elemental Beryllium in 1828.

The alternative name glucinium (symbol: Gl) is derived from glucina, see above. In 1949 IUPAC’s Commission on Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry selected the name beryllium based on consideration of prevailing usage (note).

   

The German chemist Johann Bartholomäus Trommsdorff (1770-1837) discovered in 1800 in beryl from Saxony a new earth, calling it Agusterde ("Agust Earth"). He derived this name from the Greek άγευστος, without taste (note). In a few years, 1804, was announced that Agusterde was "nothing else as phosphorsaure Kalkerde Chaux phosphatée (note)

• Mary Elvira Weeks, Discovery of the Elements, comp. rev. by Henry M. Leicester (Easton, Pa.: Journal of Chemical Education, 1968), pp. 535-540.
• Beryl, by Gregory D. Holland. Trinity Mineral Co. (on-line)