When germanium was first discovered, Winkler thought it was eka-stibnium, a different predicted element. Mendeleev thought it could be yet another predicted element, eka-cadmium. After Winkler purified more of the new element, he was able to provide more accurate values for its properties and its identity was confirmed. Describe the importance of accurate values in supporting Mendeleev’s table
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Germanium was discovered by Clemens A. Winkler at Freiberg, Germany, in 1886. Its existence had been predicted by Mendeleev who predicted its atomic weight would be about 71 and that its density around 5.5 g/cm3.
In September 1885 a miner working in the Himmelsfürst silver mine near Freiberg, came across an unusual ore. It was passed to Albin Weisbach at the nearby Mining Academy who certified it was a new mineral, and asked his colleague Winkler to analyse it. He found its composition to be 75% silver, 18% sulfur, and 7% he could not explain. By February 1886, he realised it was a new metal-like element and as its properties were revealed, it became clear that it was the missing element below silicon as Mendeleev had predicted. The mineral from which it came we know as argyrodite, Ag8GeS6.