Elementymology & Elements Multidict

memory peg	Artificial radioactive element melting point -- °C; -- °F boiling point -- °C; -- °F density -- g/cc; -- pounds/cubic foot
1984 Gottfried Münzenberg, Peter Armbruster and co-workers, Darmstadt, Germany
Hessen, German state

First prepared in 1984 by Gottfried Münzenberg, Peter Armbruster, H. Folger, Fritz Peter Heßberger, Sigurd Hofmann, J. Keller, Klaus Poppensieker, Willibrord Reisdorf, Karl-Heinz Schmidt, H.-J. Schött, Matti Leino, and R. Hingmann at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany.

The systematic IUPAC name was Unniloctium (Uno). Although the discoverers wanted to name the new element in 1992 Hassium, which proposal was followed by the American Chemical Society in March 1994, in IUPAC nomenclature committee proposed in August 1994 Hahnium (Ha), after Otto Hahn (cf. Dubnium). However, finally Hassium (Hs) was ratified by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Council meeting in Geneva during August 1997. It was named after Hassia, the Latin name for the German state Hessen. The discoverers of element 108 made this proposal in order to honor this German State, in which Darmstadt is located, because it provides a large part of the GSI-budget. In 1996 Gottfried Münzenberg formulated the choice as "womit wir unser schönes Hessenland gewürdigt sehen" (that we see our beautiful land of Hesse honoured). (see "Naming the transfermium elements").

Some sources mention erroneously that element 108 is named after a person, in analogy to the other elements from 104 to 109. The SMI Corporation found for its Periodic Table a Henri Hass, Swiss born Russian chemist known for work in thermodynamics. Others came with a Henry Bohn Hass, head of the Chemistry Department at Purdue university (West Lafayette, Indiana) in the 1940s.

The name Hessen refers to the Germanic tribe of the Chatti, who settled in the region in the first centuries B.C (note).

• 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).