December in the Periodic Table

• Martin Heinrich Klaproth born 1743: discovered zirconium (Zr, 40) and uranium (actually uranium dioxide) (U, element 92) [map] from pitchblende [map]; codiscovered cerium (Ce, 58) [map]; rediscovered chromium (Cr, 24) [map].

• First artificially initiated self-sustained nuclear fission reaction [map] (Chicago pile one) under Stagg Field, University of Chicago, 1942.

• Paul Josef Crutzen born 1933: meteorology and atmospheric chemistry including ozone [map] chemistry; coined the term anthropocene; Nobel Prize, 1995. Link to his 1970 paper on nitrogen oxides and ozone.

• First published use of the term isotope [map] (meaning "same place") for elements which share the same place in the periodic table, by Frederick Soddy with advice from Margaret Todd 1913.

• Christian Friedrich Schönbein [map] received US patent 4,874 for guncotton, 1846.

• Louis-Joseph Gay-Lussac born 1778: law of expansion of gases with increasing temperature; law of combining volumes of gases; isolated boron (B, element 5) [map]; research on chlorine [map], fermentation, prussic acid, and composition of water.
• Charles Martin Hall born 1863: discovered method of extracting aluminum electrolytically [map] from bauxite (in his garage). Read more about his relevant patents.

• Claude-Louis Berthollet born 1749: steps toward the law of mass action; analysis of ammonia; discovered bleaching action of chlorine [map]; discovered composition of prussic acid (HCN); showed that acids need not contain oxygen.
• Fritz Haber born 1868: high-pressure synthesis of ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen (Haber-Bosch process [map]); Nobel Prize, 1918
• Carl Wilhelm Scheele [map] born 1742: discovered chlorine (Cl, element 17) [map]; isolated oxygen ("fire air") [map]; Scheele's green; isolated phosphorus (P, element 15) from bone ash; research on action of light on silver salts; synthesized organic acids

• Eugen Baumann born 1846: iodine [map] in thyroid.
• First pure compound of californium (Cf, element 98) announced at 1960 meeting of American Nuclear Society.

• Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner born 1780: noted triads of elements with similar properties and a progression of atomic weight [map]; catalytic action of platinum; invented instantaneous-lighting lamp (Döbereiner lamp)

• Glenn Seaborg, Edwin McMillan, Joseph Kennedy, and Arthur Wahl bombarded uranium oxide with 16-MeV deuterons to produce plutonium (Pu, element 94) [map] in 1940.

• Antoine-Henri Becqurel born 1852: discovered radioactivity [map] (Becquerel rays) from uranium salts; Nobel Prize (physics), 1903.

• Humphry Davy born 1778: isolated barium (Ba, element 56), calcium (Ca, 20), magnesium (Mg, 12), and strontium (Sr, 38) [map]; potassium (K, 19), sodium (Na, 11), and lithium (Li, 3) [map]; co-discovered boron (B, 5); recognized as elementary and named chlorine (Cl, 17) [ma]; invented Davy mine safety lamp. His first work on heat and friction includes some insightful ideas and dubious experiments. Read some of his writings on sodium and potassium and on chlorine and its compounds. Read his Researches, Chemical and Philosophical; Chiefly Concerning Nitrous Oxide and his Elements of Chemical Philosophy.
• Fission of uranium (U, element 92) by neutrons detected by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in Berlin [map], 1938; the interpretation of the event as fission would await a paper by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch [map].
• Willard Frank Libby born 1908: developed carbon dating [map]; Nobel Prize, 1960.

• Berkelium (Bk, element 97) discovered by (left to right) Kenneth Street, Jr., Stanley G. Thompson, Glenn T. Seaborg, and Albert Ghiorso using ion-exchange chromatography at the Berkeley Radiation Lab (later named Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory [map]), 1949.

• Einsteinium (Es, element 99) discovered by (left to right) Louise Smith, Sherman Fried, Gary Higgins; (back row) Albert Ghiorso, Rod Spence, Glenn Seaborg, Paul Fields and John Huizenga using ion-exchange chromatography at the Berkeley Radiation Lab (later named Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory [map]), 1952.

• Axel Fredrik Cronstedt born 1722: discovered nickel (Ni, element 28) [map] and zeolite; classification of minerals

• Herman Frasch born 1851: sulfur mining (Frasch process, developed in Louisiana [map])
• William Gregor born 1761: discovered titanium (Ti, element 22) [map]; analysis of minerals

• Clemens Winkler born 1838: discovered germanium (Ge, element 32) [map]; analysis of gases
• Marie and Pierre Curie discover radium (element 88, Ra) [map], 1898.

• Wilhelm Röntgen [map] announced his discovery of new rays, 1895, inspiring research that would lead to a thousand papers on X-rays within a year.

• Ellen Gleditsch born 1879: nuclear chemistry; half life of radium [map].
• Harold Urey and co-workers announced discovery of deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen (H, element 1) [map], 1932. (Link to a register of Urey's papers.)

• William David Coolidge of General Electric is issued US Patent 1,082,933 for ductile tungsten [map] for incandescent bulb filaments, 1913. [See also Oliver Sacks' memoir Uncle Tungsten for a personal account of this topic in England.]

• Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac [map] read his memoir on combining volumes of gases to the Philomathic Society of Arcueil, 1808.

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