Beryllium

Discovered in 1798 by the French chemist Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, who named it glucinium. The element received its modern name at the suggestion of the German chemists Klaproth and the Swede Ekeberg.

A great deal of work on establishing the composition of compounds of beryllium and its minerals was carried out by the Russian chemist Ivan Avdeev. It was he who proved that beryllium oxide has the composition BeO, and not Be2O3, as previously thought.

Beryllium was isolated in free form in 1828 by the French chemist Antoine Bussy and independently by the German chemist Friedrich Wöhler. Pure metallic beryllium was obtained in 1898 by the French physicist Paul Lebeau by electrolysis of molten salts.

Place of Birth

Deposits of beryllium minerals are present in Brazil, Argentina, Africa, India, Kazakhstan, Russia (Ermakovskoe deposit in Buryatia, Malyshevskoe deposit in the Sverdlovsk region, pegmatites of the eastern and southeastern parts of the Murmansk region), etc. Bertrandite is most common in the United States, especially in Utah.