Elementymology & Elements Multidict

memory peg	Artificial radioactive element melting point -- °C; -- °F boiling point -- °C; -- °F density -- g/cc; -- pounds/cubic foot
1950 Stanley G. Thompson and co-workers, Berkeley, Calif., USA
California, state of the USA

First prepared in 1950 by Stanley G. Thompson, Kenneth Street, Jr., Albert Ghiorso, and Glenn T. Seaborg at the Berkeley Laboraty of the University of California by bombardment of Curium with Helium ions.

About the naming of element #98 Glenn Seaborg wrote in 1978 in his biographical article on Stan Thompson (note):

"Naming element 98 was not as straightforward. According to the actinide concept, element 98 is the chemical homolog of the lanthanide element, dysprosium. A little research showed that the name «dysprosium» was based on the Greek word «dysprositos» meaning »hard to get at.« Although element 98 was hard to get at, in the sense that work had been going on toward its synthesis and identification for some three years, there was trouble finding an analogous name.

The group, therefore, toyed with a rather long list of possibilities. We found a handwritten list of names in some of our old files that apparently had been under consideration for element 98: lewisium, cyclotronium, cyclonium, euprosium, nonactinjum, enneactinium, enactinium, lawrencium, radlabium, praedicium, accretium, colonium, californium. As you know, californium (Cf) won out, honoring the state and the university where the work was done. In a weak attempt to add justification by comparison with its homologous element, in the publication announcing the discovery of californium Stan and his coworkers added, «The best we can do is point out, in recognition of the fact dysprosium is named on the basis of a word meaning 'difficult to get at,' that the searchers for another element [Gold] a century ago found it difficult to get to California.»"

Anecdote

The following anecdote comes from Glenn T. Seaborg, 1990:

Upon learning about the naming of these elements, the "Talk of the Town" section of the New Yorker magazine had the following to say:

"New atoms are turning up with spectacular, if not downright alarming frequency nowadays, and the University of California at Berkeley, whose scientists have discovered element 97 and 98, has christened them berkelium and californium, respectively. While unarguably suited to their place of birth, these names strike us as indicating a surprising lack of public relations foresight on the part of the university, located, as it is, in a state where publicity has flourished to a degree matched perhaps only by evangelism. California's busy scientists will undoubtedly come up with another atom or two one of these days, and the university might well have anticipated that. Now it has lost forever the chance of immortalizing itself in the atomic tables with some such sequence as universitium (97), offium (98), californium (99), berkelium (100)."

"«Talk of the Town» has missed the point in their comments on naming of the elements 97 and 98. We may have shown lack of confidence but no lack of foresight in naming these elements «berkelium» and «californium.» By using these names first, we have forestalled the appalling possibility that after naming 97 and 98 «univesitium» and «offium,» some New Yorker might follow with the discovery of 99 and 100 and apply the names «newium» and «yorkium.»"

"We are already at work in our office laboratories on «newium» and «yorkium»! So far we have just the names."

The word California originally referred to the entire region composed of what is today the state of California, plus all or parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Wyoming, and the Mexican peninsula of Baja California.

Several origins have been suggested for the word "California", including Spanish, Latin, South Asian, and Aboriginal American origins. All of these are disputed.

The name California is most commonly believed to have derived from a fictional paradise peopled by Black Amazons and ruled by a Queen Califia. The earliest known application of the name to this island of the Amazons was in the romance novel Las Sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián) by Spanish author Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, whose earliest surviving edition (but not first edition) is from 1510.

Sabed que a la diestra mano de las Indias existe una isla llamada California muy cerca de un costado del Paraíso Terrenal; y estaba poblada por mujeres negras, sin que existiera allí un hombre, pues vivían a la manera de las amazonas. Eran de bellos y robustos cuerpos, fogoso valor y gran fuerza. Su isla era la más fuerte de todo el mundo, con sus escarpados farallones y sus pétreas costas. Sus armas eran todas de oro y del mismo metal eran los arneses de las bestias salvajes que ellas acostumbraban domar para montarlas, porque en toda la isla no había otro metal que el oro

Know that on the right hand from the Indies exists an island called California very close to a side of the Earthly Paradise; and it was populated by black women, without any man existing there, because they lived in the way of the Amazons. They had beautiful and robust bodies, and were brave and very strong. Their island was the strongest of the World, with its cliffs and rocky shores. Their weapons were golden and so were the harnesses of the wild beasts that they were accustomed to domesticate and ride, because there was no other metal in the island than gold

The name California is the fifth-oldest surviving European place-name in the U.S. and was applied to what is now the southern tip of Baja California as the island of California by a Spanish expedition led by Diego de Becerra and Fortun Ximenez, who landed there in 1533 at the behest of Hernando Cortes.

• Mary Elvira Weeks, Discovery of the Elements, comp. rev. by Henry M. Leicester (Easton, Pa.: Journal of Chemical Education, 1968), pp. 848-850.
• S.G. Thompson, K. Street, Jr., A. Ghiorso, & G.T. Seaborg, The New Element Californium (Atomic Number 98). DOE-report. June 19, 1950. (Full text in PDF available on-line).
• Earl K. Hyde & Glenn T. Seaborg, Transurane : Teil A 1, I: Die Elemente. Gmelins Handbuch der anorganische Chemie, Ergänzungswerk zur 8. Aufl.; Band 7a. Weinheim/Bergstrasse: Chemie, 1973.
• Glenn T. Seaborg, "Stanley G. Thompson: a Chemist's Chemist." Chemtech 7 (1978), p. 408-413. (on-line).
• Glenn T. Seaborg, Transuranium elements: A Half Century. Remarks at ACS Symposium to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Transuranium Elements, Washington D.C., August 27, 1990. (PDF-file available on-line).
• Glenn T. Seaborg, Early History of LBNL, A transcript of the lecture on the 65th Anniversary of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, August 26, 1996 (on-line).