NILSON, L.- F. (LARS FREDRIK). - THE DISCOVERY OF A NEW ELEMENT SCANDIUM.

Sur l'ytterbine, terre nouvelle de M. Marignac. (+) Sur le scandium, élément nouveau.

(Paris, Gauthier-Villars), 1879. 4to. No wrappers. In: "Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de L'Academie des Sciences", Tome 88, No 12. Pp. (625-) 676. (Entire issue offered). Nilson's papers: pp. 642-645 a. 645-648. First leaf with a tear to right margin, no loss of paper.

First apperance of the papers in which Nilson describes his discovery of a new element and its properties, and naming it Scandium. It was the second new element found after Mendeleev's prediction of its existence as "Eka-Boron".

"Mendeléeff had predicted that another element, which he called eka-boron and which he said would have an atomic weight between 40 (calcium) and 48 (titanium), would some day be revealed. It was discovered in 1879 by Lars Fredrik Nilson.... Nilson extracted 63 grams of the rare earth erbia from gadolinite and euxenite, and converted it into the nitrate. Upon decomposing this salt by heat, as Marignac had done, he obtained some very pure ytterbia and, to his great surprise, an earth that was unknown to him.Upon thoroughly investigating this new earth, he found that it contained an element whose properties concided almost exactly with those Mendeléef had predicted for ekaboron. Nilson called it scandium in honour of his fatherland."(Weeks "Discovery of the Elements" pp. 219-20).

Parkinson "Breakthroughs" 1879 C.

Order-nr.: 47273