THE NEW ELEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 111, 11 May 1923, Page 10

THE NEW ELEMENT

SUBSTANCE ISOLATED FROM

SAND

MYSTERY OF HAFNIUM AND

■OCEANUM."

(MOM OUR OWN CORRtSPONDBKI.)

LONDON, 20th February.

News comes from Copenhagen that Professor Niels Bohr, after some investigation of the material isolated from Taranaki ironsand by Dr. Alexander Scott, has come to the conclusion that the sample has ■no connection whatever with the elemnt hafnium recently discovered.

It will be remernbexed that the news of the discovery of hafnium, and its identification with the missing element 72, induced Dr. Scott to make a further examination of the oxide, with the result that he came to the conclueioD that it was the same substance as that discovered in zirconium at Copenhagen. So that the critical test of the X-ray spec-tto-meter could be applied to it, Dr. Scott sent a small sample to the Physical Laboratory of Copenhagen University, where the director, Dr. Bohr, submitted it to the> X-ray bombardment. Dr. Bohr expresses hie intention of continuing his investigation, there being a possibilty that the substance is another unknown olement.

If Dr. Scott's oxide proves to be a new element it will disclose itself us such by the character of the spectrum it will yield when excited by the X-rays, and there will then be no difficulty in assigning it to iie correct place among the lew gaps 6till existing in the Moseley table of the elements. This is the second time a mistake has been made with regard to the missing element 72. Last year a French scientist announced that he had discovered it in certain rare-earth metals, and it duly received the name "Celtium." But the claim has had to be abandoned since the definite discovery of hafnium by the Copenhagen scientists, who are among the foremost authorities on the X-ray method of identifying and placing the elements. DE, SCOTT'S EXPLANATION. Dr. Scott, who is now out of London, has written to "The Times." "The situation," he says, "with regard to the discovery of 'hafnium' is that on 12th February I received a letter from Drs. Coster and Hevesy in which they state that they could not detect the presence of hafnium in any of the samples which I sent to them on sth February. These samples were not asked for by them, but I offered to send my preparations for X-ray examination by them. It is rumoured that Professor Bohr is continuing hia examination of my samples in order to elucidate the mystery, with the possibility that an element at present known may exist in the New Zealand sand, but of this I have no information which can be regarded as authoritative."