Register with your
Check your ranking on list.
Discovery of hafnium announcedIn 1922, the discovery of hafnium by Dirk Coster and Georg von Hevesy was announced by Neils Bohr as he concluded his Nobel Prize lecture, 'On The Structure of Atoms.'. Bohr received the news by telephone from Coster, just a few minutes before he began his lecture, that the β1 and β2 lines of hafnium had been identified on a photographic plate. (Bohr had suggested to them that looking at an ore of zirconium, a homologue, could be a good place to find the new element.) The discovery of hafnuium was shortly afterwards published in the 20 Jan 1923 issue of the journal Nature. Bohr and Hevesy had liked the name danium (after Denmark) for the new element, but the name hafnium (after the Roman name for Copenhagen) suggested by Coster prevailed at the time of publication.« |