How many of the elements on the periodic table can you name? If you can get through the first 70, you’ll have listed an element that was discovered by one of our quietest neighbors buried in Forest Home Cemetery.
For over 2,500 years, scientists, chemists, philosophers, and naturalists have been interested in identifying the very basic blocks of the natural world. In 1789, Antoine Lavoisier defined an element as a substance whose smallest units cannot be broken down into a simpler substance. The periodic table, as we now know it, was developed in 1869 when Dmitri Mendeleev put together a chart of the then 63 known elements, organized by atomic weight and characteristics. Because Mendeleev understood that not all the elements had been discovered, he left blanks for elements he knew would one day be identified. One of those blanks between 66 and 68 waited years for someone to find it.
Scientists employed whatever means they had at hand to discover elements. All manner of techniques were used to break down materials to their very basic parts.
Marc Delafontaine, born in Switzerland, established his reputation as a pioneer in optical spectroscopy. In 1864, he was able to settle a dispute among scientists, definitively proving that what was once thought to be a single element was, in fact, three rare earth elements – yttrium, terbium and erbium. (He even corrected the misnaming of the elements which had been based on their colors.)
Delafontaine came to the U.S. in 1870, settling in Chicago where he was employed as a high school chemistry teacher, a professor at a women’s college, and professor of toxicological chemistry at the Chicago Medical College, where he helped improve the safety of chloroform and ether.
As a chemical analyst, his work had applications in manufacturing. Even the Chicago Police availed themselves of his services. In 1882, he testified in court about how best to identify “bogus butter” (some was thought to be lard.) In 1886, he was called on to assess a package of buckwheat flour laced with strychnine that had been sent to meat packing titan Phil Armor and in 1887, Delafontaine was part of a team of specialists tasked with studying the liver of a young murder victim. He also served his community- in 1875 when he was on a Citizen’s Association committee to assess “smoke nuisance” in industrial cities.
But his shining moment came in 1878, when he, working along with Jacques-Louis Soret, made a discovery as they were examining what they were calling “Element X.” Using a spectrograph, they noticed odd emissions and realized they had found a previously unknown element. As happens sometimes, another chemist, Per Teodor Cleve, identified the same element a year later using chemical separation. (Cleve was given the honor of naming the new element Holmia, based on the Latin name of Cleve’s hometown of Stockholm.) But it was Delafontaine’s contribution, using optical spectroscopy, that definitively proved that what they had identified was indeed an element.
Holmia’s number on the Periodic Table is 67. Its symbol is Ho and its atomic weight is 164.930. It is the 11th member of the lanthanide series. It’s a rare-earth element – soft and malleable, silvery. You most likely won’t find it in its native form because it forms a coating when exposed to air. (Although in temperate and dry air it is stable and resistant to corrosion.) It reacts with water and burns in the air when heated. It’s as rare as tungsten. It is used for the pole pieces of magnets because it has the highest magnetic properties of any element. It’s also used as a burnable poison in nuclear reactors (it absorbs neutrons to lower the reactivity of the fuel used in reactors).
Delefontaine must have been a very curious individual. In 1874, he used a spectroscope to analyze the spectra of different kinds of lightning. He was known for using the radioactive rare-earth mineral samarskite to look for new chemical elements. In 1878, he announced the discovery of a new metal, “philippium” which turned out to be a mixture of the rare earth elements yttrium and terbium. The announcement of this discovery was delayed when his laboratory burnt down during the Chicago fire of 1871. He also claimed to have isolated the element “decipium” but that also turned out to be a mixture of samarium and other elements.
Delafontaine – who was described as “the best liked tutor in all Chicago” – was sometimes asked by companies to assess the chemical properties of their products so they could use his name as an endorsement in advertising. In 1885, he was sued for libel by a vinegar company, Schuyler & Hadduck, because he said the acidic level of their vinegar was inferior to that of a rival company, Higgins & Company. Reportedly, 50,000 students and 1,200 teachers were willing to pitch in money to cover any court costs.
In 1890, he was quoted in the Liberty Tribune on the topic of food adulteration. He said that vinegar in the east is “somewhat adulterated” while “here in the west, it is generally very pure…and too cheap for adulteration to pay.” He also said that baking powder (made from cream of tartar and bi-carbonate soda) was often adulterated during the manufacturing process. He suggested that housekeepers test their cream of tartar by adding a few drops of ammonia to a solution of tartar and water. If the mixture is clear or just a little cloudy, the tartar is pure, but if a sediment forms, it should not be used.
Delafontaine had a wife and seven children, but little else is known about his personal life, including the cause of his death in 1911.
Although he spent his life labeling elements, his grave is unmarked — there is no headstone. He has now returned to the elements.
References: Findagrave, American Society for Biochemistry, Biddeford-Saco Journal, Wisconsin State Journal, The Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, Stockton and District, Rockford Daily Gazette, The Times Union, Chicago Tribune, Altoona Tribune