#klaproth

Sandman Cover Project #55—Shea Anton Pensa

"The Sandman Cover Project": What would the covers have looked like if created by the issue artists instead of Dave McKean?

Uranium was discovered in Berlin in 1789 by German apothecary and scientist Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1 December 1743-1 January 1817). Klaproth was precipitating a yellow compound (probably sodium diuranate or similar mineral) by dissolving pitchblende in acid and then neutralizing the precipitate with sodium hydroxide.

He then took the remaining yellowish substance and heated it to drive out the oxygen-anticipating a new element, although what he now had was uranium oxide, pictured above.

Klaproth named his new element uranium, after the newly discovered planet. William Herschel, however, the German born but now English astronomer who discovered Uranus, was still insisting on calling the planet George after his patron King George III of England. Few astronomers outside of England liked the name, however, and astronomers began proposing alternatives almost immediately. German astronomer Johann Elert Bode called it Uranus (Ancient Greek: Οὐρανός) after the Ancient Greek god of the sky.

Klaproth did nothing to help the case for keeping the name George offered for the planet by Herschel, and there was probably just a bit of germanic pride going on between Elert and Klaproth.  Maybe if Klaproth had been English or had moved to England and found a new patron as Herschel had done he would have named his element georgium?

Happy Birthday, Martin!

A brittle gray metal discovered by Klaproth in 1789, in the mineral pitchblende; lately employed in manufacturing glass for philosophical purposes.