Home > Discoveries of the chemical elements
__NOTOC__ The story of the discoveries of the chemical elements is presented here in chronological order. The elements are listed generally in the order in which they were first isolated as the pure element, rather than as a compound (some such as boron were known to be elements decades before they could be isolated from their compounds). The first few predate any written record.
| Name |
Date |
Discoverer |
| Carbon |
antiquity |
|
| Gold |
antiquity |
|
| Silver |
antiquity |
|
| Copper |
antiquity |
|
| Sulfur |
antiquity |
|
| Tin |
antiquity |
|
| Lead |
antiquity |
|
| Mercury |
antiquity |
|
| Iron |
antiquity |
|
| Arsenic |
1250 |
Albertus Magnus is believed to have been the first to isolate the
element. |
| Antimony |
1450 |
First described scientifically by Tholden |
| ZincZinc is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Notable characteristics Zinc is a moderately reactive metal that will combine with oxygen and other non-metals, and will react with dilute acids to release hydro |
1526Events January 14 Treaty of Madrid. Peace between Francis I of France and Charles V. Francis agrees to cede Burgundy to Charles, and abandons all claims to Flanders, Artois, Naples, and Milan. May 22 Francis repudiates the Treaty of Madrid and forms the L |
Identified as a unique metal by ParacelsusParacelsus ( November 11 or December 17, 1493 September 24, 1541) was a famous alchemist, physician, astrologer, and general occultist. Born Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim he took the name Paracelsus later in life, meaning "superior to Celsus", an e |
| BismuthBismuth is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Bi and atomic number 83. This heavy, brittle, white crystalline trivalent poor metal has a pink tinge and chemically resembles arsenic and antimony. Most diamagnetic of all metals, bi |
15th century14th century 15th century 16th century other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. Events Renaissance affects philosophy, science and art. The New Monarchs come to power i? |
May have been described in writings attributed to
Basil Valentinus , definitively identified by Claude Geoffroy Junine in 1753 |
| PhosphorusPhosphorus is the chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol P and atomic number 15. A multivalent, nonmetal of the nitrogen group, phosphorus is commonly found in inorganic phosphate rocks and in all living cells but is never naturally fo |
1669Events Samuel Pepys stopped writing his diary. The Mogul Emperor Aurangzeb destroys several Hindu temples and banned the whole religion, so Hindus rebel. Antonio Stradivari makes his first violin Famine in Bengal kills 3 million people The Hanseatic Leagu |
Hening BrandHening Brand (c. 1630- 1692) was a German merchant who discovered phosphorus in 1669. Being bankrupt, he tried to discover the Philosopher's Stone to convert silver to gold. He experimented with distilling human urine, until he finally got a white glowing, later described by Robert Boyle |
| Cobalt |
1732 |
Georg Brandt |
Platinum had been noticed in South American gold ore since the 16th century. A number of chemists worked on platinum in the 18th century:
Priestley's work on atmospheric gases resulted
in his preparation of oxygen. As he was a believer in phlogiston, he didn't realise that he had prepared a new
element, and thought that he had managed to prepare air free from
phlogiston ("de-phlogisticated air"). However, he was the
first to isolate oxygen, even if he didn't realise what he had:
The recent discovery of the new planet Uranus by William Herschel had caused a stir, so the newly discovered metallic
element was christened uranium in its honour.
The next element was discovered just after the discovery of a new
class of astronomical objects: the new element was named after the
newly discovered asteroid, Ceres. The element was
discovered nearly simultaneously in two laboratories, though it was
later shown that Berzelius and Hisinger's cerium was actually a
mixture of cerium, lanthanum and didymium.
At this point, Sir Humphry Davy pioneered the use of electricity
from the Voltaic pile to decompose the salts of alkali metals,
and so a number of thse metals were first prepared as the pure
element: the beginning of the field of electrochemistry.
The next element discovered when Mosander showed that the cerium
isolated in 1803 by Berzelius was actually a mixture of cerium,
lanthanum and so-called didymium (which was not actually one element,
and was resolved into two in 1885).
