Science: Masurium, Rhenium

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In 1869, Dmitri Ivanovitch Mendeléeff, Russian chemist, arranged all the elements in groups that show the mathematical progression of their atomic weights, predicted the existence of undiscovered elements which subsequent research found. Similarly, there was a square in the chemical crossword puzzle for radium, the properties of which were known before Madame Curie obtained that metal in a free state.

Of the 92 possible elements charted by Mendeléeff, five remained to be found until last week, when a German Curie, Dr. Ida Tacke of Berlin, assisted by Drs. Walter Noddack and Otto Berg, proclaimed their discovery of numbers 43 and 75, which they promptly named "masurium," after the East Prussian lakes where General Von Hindenburg defeated the Russians in 1915, and "rhenium," after the River Rhine.

Both elements occur in the so-called Mangan group of inorganic earth elements (i. e. manganese, chromium) and constitute about a billionth part of the earth's crust. Inert, their commercial and scientific value is unknown, probably small.