of the
Discovery
of...The Story of the
Discovery of...
ARGON
(Sort of)
Argon was the first noble gas to be discovered. Here's how it (MIGHT HAVE) happened:
Scene: England, 1785, a chemistry lab, filled with various examples of interesting scientific apparatus.
Henry Cavendish: (half to himself) Well, I've been investigating atmospheric nitrogen for nearly an hour now. Something is bound to happen.
His assistant: Sir, don't you think that some of...
Henry: Now, hold on, hold on. You know I don't like being interrupted when I'm working!
(1 hour later).
Assistant: Sir, do you think you should...
Henry: Eureka!! I've got it! I've found something!
Assistant: What is it? Tell me!
Henry: Let me try and make this simple for you. I believe that no more than 1/120 part of the air might be an inert constituent. Do you know what the means?
Assistant: No, I can't say that I do.
Henry: Me neither.
(years pass....)
Scene: England, 1894, another chemistry lab
Lord Rayleigh: You see, my Scottish friend, here I have two sample of Nitrogen.
William Ramsay: Did you obtain these samples from the same source?
Rayleigh: Of course not! One came from the air, and the other came from decomposing ammonia.
Ramsay: So, they have the same properties, don't they?
Rayleigh: You would expect so, wouldn't you? Well, surprisingly, there is a slight difference in the density of these two samples here.
Ramsay: How slight?
Rayleigh: Only 0.05%.
Ramsay: Do you think this is experimental error? I mean, no offense, but it's possible.
Rayleigh: I...don't know. I have a feeling that we should investigate this more.
(they think for awhile)
Ramsay: Hmmm. I was wondering. You got the nitrogen sample from the air by removing all the other gases that you believed to be in the sample.
Rayleigh: That's right. Are you saying...
Ramsay: What if you didn't remove ALL the gases there are in the air? I mean, what if there is a gas we just don't know about yet?
Rayleigh: Ramsay, you are a genius! That proposal is certainly possible!
(they excitedly pass electricity through the sample and observe the light given off).
Rayleigh: We've got it! There was another gas in the air the whole time! That would explain the different densities! So, what should we call our new gas?
Ramsay: Well, it sure is lazy. It must be unreactive, too. What's the Greek word for "lazy"?
Rayleigh: Argos. How 'bout "Argon"?
Now, this certainly is an oversimplification of the scientific process that was used to discover Argon. But it gives you a basic idea of the detective skills that were involved, and how scientists built on the work of each other to discover a new element.