An Undiscovered Gas

William Ramsey

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William Ramsey describes this article by saying:

"The subject of my remarks to-day is a new gas. I shall describe to you later its curious properties; but it would be unfair not to put you at once in possession of the knowledge of its most remarkable property--it has not yet been discovered. As it is still unborn, it has not yet been named. The naming of a new element is no easy matter, for there are only twenty-six letters in our alphabet, and there already over seventy elements. To select a mane expressible by a symbol which has not already been claimed for one of the known elements is difficult, and the difficulty is enhanced when it is required to select a name which shall be descriptive of the properties (or want of properties) of the element."

He then goes on to describe the evidence for its existence.

This paper was delivered to the chemical section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in Toronto, 1897. He William Ramsey was then predident of the chemical section. Reprinted from the Report of the British Association, 1897