Abstract
THE determination of the atomic weights of nickel and cobalt has attracted a considerable amount of attention during the last few years, the numbers obtained by different workers exhibiting relatively startling variations. Thus, including only the four most recent results, the values for cobalt vary between 58˙78 (Hempel and Thiele, 1895) and 60˙12 (Schützen-berger, 1892). Similar variations observed for nickel by Krüss, led him to the conclusion that this metal contained a new element, to which he gave the name of “gnomium”; but recent work has not tended to confirm this view. In the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for November and December last, are two important contributions to this subject, by Richards and Cushman and Richards and Baxter respectively, giving the results of analyses of the bromides of nickel and cobalt; which show in a decisive manner that properly purified nickel and cobalt are homogeneous substances. After stating the advantages pertaining to the use of the bromides, for the sublimation and bottling of which a highly ingenious apparatus is described, they show how two totally distinct methods of purification, starting from metals of different origin, lead to a bromide of the same composition.
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The Atomic Weights of Nickel and Cobalt. Nature 57, 374–375 (1898). https://doi.org/10.1038/057374b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/057374b0