The Foundations of Chemistry

2-8 Percent Composition and Formulas of Compounds 69

earlier by John Winthrop, the first governor of Connecticut.)
Although “niobium” became the accepted designation in
Europe, the Americans, not surprisingly, chose “columbium.”
It was not until 1949—when the International Union of Pure
and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) ended more than a century
of controversy by ruling in favor of mythology—that ele-
ment 41 received a unique name.
In 1978, the IUPAC recommended that elements beyond
103 be known temporarily by systematic names based on nu-
merical roots; element 104 is unnilquadium (unfor 1, nilfor
0, quadfor 4, plus the -iumending), followed by unnilpen-
tium, unnilhexium, and so on. Arguments over the names of
elements 104 and 105 prompted the IUPAC to begin hear-
ing claims of priority to numbers 104 to 109. The IUPAC’s
final recommendations for these element names were an-

nounced in 1997. The names and symbols recommended by

that report are: element 104, rutherfordium, Rf; element 105,

dubnium, Db; element 106, seaborgium, Sg; element 107,

bohrium, Bh; element 108, hassium, Hs; and element 109,

meitnerium, Mt. Some of these (Rf and Bh) are derived from

the names of scientists prominent in the development of

atomic theory; others (Sg, Hs, and Mt) are named for scien-

tists who were involved in the discovery of heavy elements.

Dubnium is named in honor of the Dubna laboratory in the

former Soviet Union, where important contributions to the

creation of heavy elements have originated.

Lisa Saunders Boffa

Senior Chemist

Exxon Corporation

Californium Lutetium

Berkelium

Hafnium

Rhenium

Holmium

Magnesium

Mangan

Kadmium Kobber

Erbium

Terbium

Yttrium

Ytterbium

Strontium

THULIUM

FRANCIUM

GALLIUM

GERMANIUM

AMERICIUM POLONIUM

RUTHENIUM

SCANDIUM

EUROPIUM

Many chemical elements were named

after places.