Solikamsk Magnesium Plant OJSC, Solikamsk, Russia

P. G. Detkov, Member of the Board, Candidate of Technical Sciences, e-mail: p.detkov@yandex.ru

Independent Expert, Moscow, Russia

D. V. Drobot, Doctor of Chemiсal Sciences, e-mail: dvdrobot@mail.ru

In 1879 Per Theodor Kleve published an article in which he reported that when fractionating erbium oxide, he isolated two fractions. During a spectroscopic study of these products, three new spectral lines were discovered. The scientist believed that these lines belong to two new elements. The element, which had an absorption line with a wavelength of 684 nm, was proposed to be called “Thulium”. For the element with spectral lines 640–642.5 and 536 nm, the name “Holmium” was proposed. The publication of the discovery of holmium and thulium caused discussion in the scientific press. The Swiss scientist Jacques-Louis Soret noted that back in 1878 he pointed out that lines with this wavelength belonged to a new element, whose possib le existence was announced by scientists Delafontaine and Marignac. Soret then designated the supposed new element with the symbol X. The scientist mentioned that Marc Delafontaine subsequently announced the discovery of a new element, which he called “Philippium” and noted its identity with the element X. Kleve agreed that the element, which he called holmium, is identical to the element, which Soret designated X, but did not recognize it as identical to the Philippius discovered by Delafontaine. Mark Delafontaine was very critical of the information about Kleve’s discovery of thulium and holmium. He proposed removing the name “holmium” from the list of chemical elements. Two years after the discovery of Philippium, Delafontaine repeated his experiment to obtain this element. He managed to obtain a metal oxide whose properties were similar to Philippium oxide. However, the absorption spectrum of the new sample differed from the spectra of filipium compounds obtained earlier. This study showed that Philippius is not identical to element X. After the publication of the Delafontaine`s article, Soret published his statement. The scientist writes that he could exercise his right to choose a new name for this element, but believes that this would create even greater confusion in this very confusing subject, so he officially approved the name “holmium” proposed by Kleve. In 1886, Lecoq de Boisbaudran discovered that holmium oxide is not a homogeneous substance. The scientist subjected his sample to fractionation processes and obtained two products, the appearance of the spectra of which differed from the picture of the spectra of holmium compounds published by Soret. Lecoq de Boisbaudran believed that since the bands 640.4 and 536.3 were used by the scientists of Soret and Cleves to identify holmium, this name should be assigned to an element with these characteristics. The scientist gave the name “dysprosium” to the element characterized by spectral lines with wavelengths of 753 and 451.5 nm. In 1906, work confirming the existence of dysprosium was published by Georges Urban.

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