Elementymology & Elements Multidict

memory peg	Pale yellow gas with a supposedly bleach-like odor melting point -220 °C; -363 °F boiling point -188 °C; -307 °F density 0.0017 g/cc; 0.11 pounds/cubic foot
1886 Ferdinand-Frédéric-Henri Moissan, France
fluere = to flow, to stream (Latin) named by Sir Humphry Davy

Georgius Agricola (Georg Bauer, of Chemnitz, 1494-1555), described in his De re metallica (1556), the first detailed description of how to prepare metals from ores, how the admixture of fluxes (lapides igni liquescentes [fluores] = stones which become liquid in fire [flows]) facilitates the smelting of ores. Fluxes work as a solvent for ores that would otherwise need much more heat to become liquid. The aid, called Flußspat (fluorspar, CaF₂) by the German miners, had for the first time been mentioned by Basilius Valentinus towards the end of the 15th century. It was more extensively described in one of Agricola's early works in 1530. Fluorspar occurs in nature in several beautifully colored varieties. The violet variety (fluores colore violaceo) looks like amethyst, the green one resembles emerald and so these varieties were occasionally sold instead of the gems (hence the name "false amethyst" or "false emerald" for fluorspar).

In 1670 the Nuremberg glassworker, Heinrich Schwanhard, found that glass was etched when exposed fluorspar treated with acid.

The Swedish apothecary Carl Wilhelm Scheele started, in 1771, a systematic investigation to find out the chemical nature of fluorspar and the details of its reaction with acids. He found an acid, which he called Flußspatsäure (acid of fluorspar, fluoric acid). Even though this name clearly reminds us today of the element fluorine bound in it, nothing was known by the time about the chemical nature of this acid, the name being merely derived from the latin term "fluores" for fluorspar.

Many later investigators, including Ampère, Davy, Gay-Lussac, Lavoisier, and Thénard, experimented with hydrofluoric acid, some experiments ending in tragedy. Several chemists lost their lives, others lived shortened lives, and many experienced great pain as a result of their attempts to isolate the element. The element was finally isolated in 1886 by Ferdinand-Frédéric-Henri Moissan (1852-1907) after nearly 74 years of continuous effort.

André Ampère suggested the name Phtor (Greek for destructive) because this seemed to be more appropriate because of the destructive properties of its compounds. This name was accepted only in the eastern hemisphere (see list to the left). Davy disagreed with this name and proposed fluor (which was already in 1813 used for "mineral containing fluorine,") from the Latin fluere = to flow, to stream.

• The discovery of fluoride and fluorine (with many references).
• Mary Elvira Weeks, Discovery of the Elements, comp. rev. by Henry M. Leicester (Easton, Pa.: Journal of Chemical Education, 1968), pp. 727-742.