A 12-gram chunk of germanium, 2–3 cm in size
22 September 2023
Germanium is a hard-brittle, grayish-white metalloid with the atomic number 32 and the symbol Ge. The element has a large number of industrial uses, including use as a semiconductor in transistors and in fiber-optics, solar cells, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
It was discovered by chemist Clemens Winkler in 1885, who published his findings in early 1886, dubbing the new element after his homeland of Germany:
Nach mehrwöchentlichem mübevollem Suchen kann ich heute mit Bestimmtheit aussprechen, dass der Argyrodit ein neues, dem Antimon sehr ähnliches, aber von diesem doch scbarf unterschiedenes Element enthält, welchem der Name “Germanium” beigelegt werden möge.
(After several weeks of exhausting searching, I can now say with certainty that argyrodite contains a new element that is very similar to antimony, but differs sharply from it, to which the name “germanium” may be ascribed.)
The existence of germanium had been predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev and his periodic table. Mendeleev had provisionally dubbed the prospective element eka-silicon. (See eka-)
Winkler had initially wanted to dub his discovery neptunium, after the newly discovered planet, but that name had already been taken by a supposed element discovered by another German chemist, R. Hermann. Hermann’s discovery later proved to be mistaken.
Sources:
Fontani, Marco, Mariagrazia Costa, and Mary Virginia Orna. The Lost Elements: The Periodic Table’s Shadow Side. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2015, 131. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Miśkowiec, Pawel. “Name Game: The Naming History of the Chemical Elements: Part 2—Turbulent Nineteenth Century.” Foundations of Chemistry, 8 December 2022. DOI: 10.1007/s10698-022-09451-w.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, March 2012, s.v. germanium, n.; September 2003, neptunium, n.
Winkler, Clemens. “Germanium, Ge, ein Neues, Nicht-Metallisches Element” (6 February 1886). Berichte der Deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin, vol. 19.1 (January–June 1886), 210–11 at 210. Bibliothèque Nationale de France: Gallica.
Image credit: Chemical Elements: A Virtual Museum, 2009. Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.