Charles James (b. England, 1880) studied chemistry at the University of London with William Ramsay (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1904), who would remain his inspiration and friend. He arrived in the United States in 1906 accepting a position with the National Refining Company in West Chester, PA. However, he was almost immediately recruited by Charles Parsons to the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts in Durham, N.H. (in 1923 the University of New Hampshire). James's research in Durham was focused on the rare earths and he was a contributor to the discovery of lutetium.  In 1912, The gap in atomic weights had Ramsay suggesting to James that there was a missing element between neodymium and samarium. Following the discovery of atomic numbers by Henry Moseley in 1913, in the 1920s the search for element #61 gained momentum. As it turned out, James was 'scooped' by B. Smith Hopkins, at the University of Illinois who named the 'new element' ilium. However, it was only in 1947 that definitive proof of element #61, promethium, a radioactive by-product of the explosion of the atomic bomb, was published. The present talk will describe aspects of James's studies dedicated to the discovery of element #61.

Charles James: His efforts to identify element #61

248th National Meeting (2014)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.