Historical Information
Discoverer: Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac
Discovered: 1878, Switzerland
Other: Chemists and scientists since the late 1800's have been working with a form of ytterbium, named erbia. In 1878 Jean de Marignac claimed that he had separated a new ingredient from erbia. He decided that this new ingredient he called ytterbia was a compound of the newly found element, ytterbium.
Named after the village of "Ytterby" near Vaxholm in Sweden.
Originally, ytterbium was considered and element until mixed results varied from different testing labs across the world. The ytterbium the scientists were working with at the time was actually a combination of 2 elements. These two elements are now known as lutetium, and ytterbium (the child element).