When was the element beryllium discovered

When exposed to alpha particles , such as those emitted by radium or polonium , beryllium emits neutrons and is used as a neutron source. Beryllium is also used as a moderator in nuclear reactors. Other beryllium alloys are used in the windshield, brake disks and other structural components of the space shuttle. Beryllium was once known as glucinum, which means sweet, since beryllium and many of its compounds have a sugary taste. Unfortunately for the chemists that discovered this particular property, beryllium and many of its compounds are poisonous and should never be tasted or ingested.

Estimated Oceanic Abundance : 5. From the Greek word beryllos, beryl; also called glucinium or glucinum, Greek glykys, sweet. Discovered in the oxide form by Vauquelin in both beryl and emeralds in The metal was isolated in by Wohler and by Bussy independently by the action of potassium on beryllium chloride. Beryllium is found in some 30 mineral species, the most important of which are bertrandite, beryl, chrysoberyl, and phenacite.

Aquamarine and emerald are precious forms of beryl. Beryl and bertrandite are the most important commercial sources of the element and its compounds. Most of the metal is now prepared by reducing beryllium fluoride with magnesium metal. Beryllium metal did not become readily available to industry until The metal, steel gray in color, has many desirable properties. As one of the lightest of all metals, it has one of the highest melting points of the light metals. Now less than tons of metal are refined each year because it is dangerously toxic.

Beryllium has no known biological role, and its dust causes chronic inflammation of the lungs and shortage of breath. Brief exposure to a lot of beryllium, or long exposure to a little, will bring on this lung condition which is known as berylliosis. The disease may take up to five years to manifest itself and about a third of those who are affected by it die prematurely and the rest are permanently disabled. Workers in industries using beryllium alloys were most at risk, such as those making early types of fluorescent lamps which were coated inside with an oxide film containing beryllium.

In the manufacture of this type of lamp ceased. The minerals beryl and emerald are beryllium silicates and were known to the ancient world; the emperor Nero used a large emerald the better to view gladiatorial fights in the area. Their beautiful green colour is due to traces of chromium.

Analysis of the oxygen in these gems enables their source to be identified because the isotope ratio of oxygen to oxygen varies according to where the mineral is found. The Romans got their emeralds mainly from Austria, although some came from as far away as Pakistan. More surprising was the discovery that the Mogul rulers of India got some of theirs from Colombia in South America probably via trade across the Pacific.

The chief ores of beryllium are beryl and bertrandite, which is also a silicate. Sometimes truly enormous crystals of bertranide turn up, one specimen found in Maine in the USA was over 5 metres in length and weighed almost 20 tonnes.

That beryl and emerald might harbour a new element was suspected by the 18 th century and Nicholas Louis Vauquelin analysed them, and on 15 February he announced that they contained a new element - but he was unable to separated it from its oxide. Beryllium metal was isolated in from beryllium chloride BeCl 2 by reacting this with potassium. Beryllium was to play a historic role in advancing our knowledge of atomic theory since it helped uncover the fundamental particle, the neutron.

This was discovered in by James Chadwick who bombarded a sample of beryllium with the alpha-rays which are helium nuclei emanating from radium. He observed that it then emitted a new kind of subatomic particle which had mass but no charge. The combination of radium and beryllium is still used to generate neutrons for research purposes, although a million alpha-particles only manage to produce 30 neutrons.

Beryllium is a silvery-white, lustrous, relatively soft metal of group 2 of the periodic table. The metal is unaffected by air or water, even at red heat. When copper and nickel are alloyed with beryllium they not only become much better at conducting electricity and heat, but they display remarkable elasticity.

For this reason their alloys make good springs and the copper alloy is used to make spark-proof tools, which are the only ones allowed in sensitive areas such as oil refineries.

Beryllium has but a single isotope, beryllium-9 which is not radioactive but beryllium, which cosmic rays produce in the upper atmosphere, is radioactive with a half-life of 1.

Radioactive beryllium has been detected in Greenland ice cores and marine sediments and the amount that has been measured in ice cores deposited over the past years increases and decreases in line with the Sun's activity, as shown by the frequency of sun-spots.

That tells us that the Earth's magnetic field was much weaker then than it is now. Richard Van Noorden with the story of Beryllium. Next time we're telling the tale of a pair of twins that can make a glass blower's life a lot safer. One day, as he stood at his lathe with an orange inferno raging before him I asked him about the glasses he was wearing.

Try them. I slipped them on and suddenly the flame was gone. All I could see was a red-hot piece of spinning glass unobscured by the glare. I gawped in wonder until Geoff pulled the specs off my face saying "Give 'em back ya fool" and went back to his work. And you can catch up on the story of Didymium and its mysterious light controlling chemistry with Andrea Sella on next week's Chemistry in its Element, I do hope you can join us. I'm Chris Smith, thank you for listening and goodbye.

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Discovery date. Discovered by. Nicholas Louis Vauquelin. Origin of the name. The name is derived from the Greek name for beryl, 'beryllo'. Melting point.

Boiling point. Atomic number. Relative atomic mass.