NEW ELEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 245, 16 October 1931, Page 7

NEW ELEMENT.

Important Chemical Discovery In United States. PROFESSOR'S WORK. (Received 1.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, October 15. The discovery that the unidentified element, No. S7 in the molecular scale, is a solid, and is highly inflammable and most sensitive to light is announced from Cornell University, New York State, yesterday. A small quantity of the element has been found in samarskite, a lustrous velvet-black mineral, by Professor Jacob Papish.

The numerical classification; of the elements, which are simple and indivisible substances that have hitherto defied analysis, is reckoned as according to the number of electrons ' (negative force) encircling the central positive proton, or nucleus, of an atom, in exactly the same manner as a miniature solar eystem. Thus an atom of hydrogen has one electron revolving round its proton, while uranium- the highest element in the scale, has 92. No. 87 was known to exist, but was not identified, and belongs, according to Mr. J; C. Stewart,-physics lecturer at the' Auckland University College, to the alkali series of radio-active elements, which includes lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium and caesium. The last-named (No. 55) is used in the manufacture of the photo-electric cell, and No. 87, being sensitive to light, ehould be even more useful in this sphere. Of the 92 elemenie about six remain to be identified. No. 86 is niton, and No. 88 radium.