Elementymology & Elements Multidict

memory peg	Gray-white metal melting point 1077 °C; 1971 °F boiling point 1791 °C; 3256 °F density 7.52 g/cc; 469.46 pounds/cubic foot
1879 François Lecoq de Boisbaudran, France
samarskite, mineral named after Â.Å. Ñàìàðñêèé-Áûõîâåö (V.E. Samarskij-Byhovec)

In 1839, the German mineralogist Gustav Rose (1798–1873) described a dense, black mineral with high luster, similar to ytterbite (later gadolinite, cf. Yttrium), which was found near Miass (Chelyabinsk region) in the Il'menskeye mountains (Southern Ural). He named it uranotantal (уранотантал). Seven years later, in 1846, the Moscow chemist R. I. Herman renamed this mineral ittro-ilmenit (иттроильменит), since, in his opinion, it contained a new element Ilmenium. Later, the research of C. W. Blomstrand and others, especially of Marignac, proved that Ilmenium was a mixture of Niobium and Tantalum (cf. Niobium).

In his analysis of "uranotantal", Heinrich Rose (1795-1864), professor of chemistry in Berlin and brother of Gustav Rose, found that there was no Tantalum present, but Niobium. Therefore both proposed names for the name mineral were incorrect. In his conclusion, Rose wrote in 1847:

«Я предлагаю изменить название уранотантал в самарскит, в честь полковника Самарского, по благосклонности которого я был в состоянии производить над этим минералом все изложенные наблюдения»

[translation: I propose to change name uranotantalum into samarskite, in honour of Colonel Samarskij, on benevolence of whom I was able to get this mineral and to analyze it]. (note)

In 1878-80 finding new elements in samarskite was a hot issue under chemists. Several of their reports are found in the weekly Comptes rendus of the French Académie des sciences:

1. 22 July 1878: the American chemist J. Lawrence Smith (1818-1883), researching samarskite found in North-Carolina, announced a new element, which he named Mosandrum, honouring the Swedish chemist Carl Gustav Mosander (note).

   22 October 1878: Delafontaine reports that Mosandrum does not exist (note).
   28 October 1878: Delafontaine affirmed mosandra to be identical with terbia (see his table at Terbium) (note).
   In 1886 Lecoq de Boisbaudran proved mosandra was a mixture or Terbium and Marignac's Yα (Holmium).

2. 14 October 1878: the French chemist Marc Delafontaine (1837-1911), working in Chicago, wrote that he worked for two years research with samarskite, and has found a fourth new earth, which he named Philippium, after the chemist and physician Philippe Plantamour (1816-1898) of Geneva, his benefactor, friend and student of Berzelius, who translated his yearly reports (note). But, because his laboratory is destroyed in the great fire of Chicago he was not able to continue his research.

   Later, Philippium was thought to be identical with Holmium.

3. 22 October 1878: Marignac reported the discovery of Ytterbium (note).
   

4. 28 October 1878: Delafontaine reports another new metal found in samarskite from North Carolina, this time he gave this element the name Decipium, after the Latin "decipiens", which means "deceptive, misleading" (note). According to Delafontaine, samarskite contains the earths yttria, erbia, terbia, philippia, decipia, thoria, didymia, and ceria.

   16 August 1880: after spectroscopical analysis, Soret found that Decipium was identical with Lecoq's Samarium (note). Later was shown that Decipium was a mixture of Samarium and other rare-earth elements, mainly Neodymium and Praseodymium.

5. 28 July 1879: François Lecoq de Boisbaudran (1838-1912) analyzed samarskite and noted that another earth precipitated before Didymia when ammonium hydroxide was added. Spectral analysis showed two new blue lines, different from the lines of Decipium. Lecoq called the new earth Samaria after its mineral source. The name for the element within became Samarium. (note). To Vasilij Evgrafovič Samarskij-Byhovec, a rather unknown person, went the honour of being the first individual to give his name to a chemical element.
   

   Despite the suggested chemical symbol of Sm, until the 1920s often Sa was used (note). Later was shown that Lecoq's Samarium was a mixture of Samarium and Europium. Eugène-Anatole Demarçay (1852-1904) separated it in 1901.

6. 19 April 1880: Marignac reports that he has separated two new earths from samarskite. He indicated them provisionally with Yα and Yβ (note).

   16 August 1880: after spectroscopical analysis, Soret found that Yβ was identical with Samarium (note). In 1886 Lecoq de Boisbaudran produced a more pure form of Yα and named it Gadolinium.

Via spectroscopical analysis Sir William Crookes described in 1886 an element Sδ, which later proved to be Samarium. All these discoveries of new elements within a few years caused some comments of unbelief. That of the science editor of the American magazine the Manufacturer and builder, published July 1880, is on the Rare Earths page.

• Mary Elvira Weeks, Discovery of the Elements, comp. rev. by Henry M. Leicester (Easton, Pa.: Journal of Chemical Education, 1968), pp. 667-699.
• Seltene Erden. Gmelins Handbuch der anorganische Chemie, 8. Aufl.; System-Nummer 39 (1938).
• Editor's Scientific Record. Harper's new monthly magazine Vol. 58, No. 345, February 1879, p. 472 (on-line)