The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1898-09-25
JUBILEE YEAR
FOR SCIENTISTS
The Year of % Remark
able for the Discovery of
Six New Substances.

II Is doubtful whether as many dis
coveries OF new elements were ever made
in the snort period Of three or four months
as have been reported since July LIST OF
this year. All Of these achievements have
not yet been followed by the complete
and independent demonstrations without
which the scientific world cannot accept
a case as fully proven, but the various
announcements. taken together, reveal an
amount OF chemical research that is ia
the highest degree interesting.
A profound sensation was created early
in 1875 when Lord Rayleigh and Professor
william Ramsay of London, discovered
the existence OF a gas previously un-
known IN the atmosphere. To this they
gave the name argon. This substance
WIS found to- resemble nitrogen in IT'S
unwfllingness to make combinations with
other elements. and &c had spectrum
that was unlike that OF anything else on
the chemists catalogue. only a few
months later Professor Ramsay alone dis
covered, in a mineral brought from Swe-
den. the gas heium, which had up TO that
time been found only in the sun ana
few stars. Whatever uncertainty existed
In the minds Of conservative scientists
al that time In regard 10 the genuinenes5
OF those discoveries, none Is entertained
now.
The Russian chemist Mendehef noted
tho tendecy of tho clements 90 arrange
themselves IN classes in which the menu
hers would have certain properties ln
common, and found that "a regular ratio
would then prevail between the atomic
weights Of the elements Of a class so
formed. In accordance with this law
Ramsay suspected that an element not
vet detected existed. and that Wncn
found IT would posses an atomic weight
between those or arg0n and hclium. lie
rcDortod to re British Association Tor
the Advancement OF Science, a year ago.
fbfs belief. and told of ID hunt De and bis
assistant, Mr. Traycrs. had already made
FOR Ill. Last June he announced that he
had at last discovered o new elem Al
which did not dt into Che designated
MACE in the scale but was related ID
areon. In fact, krypt0n CAS- no called mo
ea) was obtained directly from ars0n,
after the areon had itself been isolated
from liquid air.
Pursuing tho search sill further Pro-
fossOr Ramsay and Air Tr1Vers found
two more substances combined with are
con. These had different weights and
snectra from each other from arson
and from krypt0n Tie named ono neon
and the other mctrscn. Reckoning tne
density OF hellum AS and OF oxygen as
& that OF neon was estimated Gao l1 of
n. krypton at 40. and metarson the same
as argon. 20 90 ID
Immediately after these facts were puo-
Hshed. I'm July professor Arthur scnla-
ter. "a physicist who ranks high 'n tho
world of science. called attention 20 the
rather close coincidence between one Of
the lines OF krvpton G55O and ono of the
aurora G-6D. lie also pointed out that
cieht OF the mctarg0n lines cOrrcspOndcd
fairly we'll ga po .uon with set OF
el.ht I'm the carbon spectrum such spec
trum as is obtained from a bi0Wp.pa
flame for instance. one was left TO INFER
that Professor Schustcr imagined DC pose
sible that IN some unexplained way an
impurlty containing carbon, had crent
into Ramsay's argJn. and that this. ritn-
en- than a new element had given the SOC
called metars0n spectrum. After fresh
experiments. however, Professor Scnuster
reported that he had I'm many other tests
completely eliminated this carbon spec
frum by means which he described. and
that he had employed the same method
I'm his experiments with metargon. TIE
felt he vas wlrrentcd. therefore. in hold
ing. Professionally that his spectrum WAS
that II a. new element. But he grants
without hesitation that further work
must be done TO estioiish the case gully.
Two Of the other announcements ~
the discovery OF new elements this year
come from Europe and ore from Amer