THE NEW ELEMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 April 1923, Page 11

THE NEW ELEMENT.

TARANAKI IRONSAND. AN UNSOLVED MYSTERY. NO CONNECTION WITH HAFNIUM. London, Feb. 20. 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 element hafnium recently discovered. felt will be remembered that the news of the discovery of hafnium, and its identification with the missing element, 7’2, induced Dr. Scott to make a furthe’: examination of the oxide, with the result that he came to the conclusion that it was the same substance as that discovered in zirconium at Copenhagen. So that the critical test of the X-ray spectrometer could be applied to it, Dr. -Scott sent a small sample to the I’hysical Laboratory of Copenhagen University where the director, Dr. Bohr, submitted it to the X-ray bombardment. Dr. Bohr expresses his intention of continuing his investigation, there being a possibility that the substance is another unknown element. If Dr. Scott’s oxide proves to be a new element, it will disclose itself a? such by the character of the spectrum it will yield when excited by the Xrays w and there will then be no difficulty in assigning it to its correct place among the few gaps still 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.” .Bui th.* 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.

Dr. Scott, who is now out of London, ha«s written to The Tinies. “The situation, ’ he says, “with regard to the discovery of ‘hafnium’ is that on February 12, T 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 February 5. These samples were not asked for by them but T offered to eend my preparations for X-ray examination by them. It is rumored that Professor Bohr is continuing his examination of my samples in order to elucidate the mystery, with the possibility that an element at present unknown may exist in the New Zealand sand, hut of this I have no information which can be regarded as authoritative.”