Mahler, Gustav 368
Malay peninsula 199
manganese 159, 292, 307, 312, 314, 350, 354, 379
Manhattan Project 73, 75, 82, 171, 393
Marcus Antonius 275–6
Marienbad (Czech Republic) 166
Marignac, Jean Charles Galissard de 376
Marquand, John P. 337–8
Mars (planet) 44, 50–52, 55
Marshall, Jenny 380
Marshall, Jim 380
Martinón-Torres, Marcos 100
Masefield, John 8, 11, 18
Mason, Brian 379
Mataloni, Giovanni 366
Matisse, Henri 8, 289
McBride, Michael 196
McCarthy, Mary 262
McGough, Roger 156
McLean, Don 226
McMillan, Ed 73, 74
Medina Azahara (Spain) 95
Meijerink, Andries 361, 364
Meissen 310
Meitner, Lise 72, 396
meitnerium 396
Melancholia (Kiefer) 221
Melencolia I (Dürer) 222
Melville, Herman 269, 271
Menai Strait suspension bridge 53
Mencken, H. L. 260
Mendeleev, Dmitrii 81–2, 87–90
and the periodic table 3, 71, 82–6, 89, 192, 334, 392–3, 395, 398
Mendeleeva, Liubov’ Dmitrievna 87
mendelevium 90, 374
Menghini, Vincenzo 49–50
The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare) 6, 215
mercury 5, 85, 89, 90–98, 151, 174, 177, 178, 183, 211, 337, 378, 395
as one of the ancient metals 31, 51, 227
and alchemy 46, 98–100
and sulphur 98–102, 345
Mercury (planet) 51
Mercury Fountain (Calder) 94–6
Mesopotamia 46
Metamorphoses (Ovid) 301
Mexico 18, 232, 324
Mexico City 324
Michelangelo 271–4
Midas 24, 28
Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig 299
Milton, John 28, 104, 330
mines and mining 23,66–7, 203, 353, 356, 378–81, 384–6 see also named mines
‘The Mines of Falun’ (Hoffmann) 49
Minterne Magna (Dorset) 62
Moby-Dick (Melville) 269
Moholy-Nagy, László 298
molybdenum 60–61, 202, 260, 350, 379
Monet, Claude 289, 312
monetary standards 17, 76, 330–31
Montand, Yves 252
Monterey (California) 321, 323
Montezuma II 18
Montgolfier brothers 153
More, Thomas 17, 148
Morelle, Mike 379
Morgan, John 81
Morris, William 319
Morse, Samuel 242, 244
Mosander, Carl 360, 363
Moscow 87, 349
Moses (Michelangelo) 273
Moss, Kate 13–15, 26
Muisca people 19
Mullineaux, Alison 134
Museum of Modern Art (New York) 297
Music for the Royal Fireworks (Handel) 181
Nabokov, Vladimir 12, 304, 342
Naples 68, 323
Napoleon I (France) 34, 68, 144, 177, 246, 372
possible arsenic poisoning of 315–18
Napoleon III (France) 256–7, 259, 263
National Portrait Gallery (London) 254
nationalism in element naming 2, 7, 162, 363, 376–7, 396–7
Natural History (Pliny the Elder) 200, 275
Natural History Museum (London) 201, 322, 387
Natural Selection (Gormley) 222
Nausea (Sartre) 173
Naxos 220
nebulium 192, 195
Nectoux, Thierry 252–3
Needham, Joseph 94
The Needles (Isle of Wight) 267
Nefertiti 276
Nelson, Horatio 231
neodymium 359, 366, 376
neon 9, 86, 174, 176, 259
discovery 333–4
used for lighting 335–42
The Neon Bible (Toole) 338
Neptune (planet) 73
neptunium 73
Netherland (O’Neill) 174
The Netherlands 173, 310
New Atlantis (Bacon) 148
New Granada 34, 39
New Granada see also Spanish New World
New Haven (Connecticut) 320
New York City 174, 211, 255, 259, 262, 287, 337–8
New Zealand 16, 245
Newton, Henry 296
Newton, Isaac 6, 53, 346, 381
Niagara (ship) 243–4
Nicholas I (Russia) 85
Nicholas Nickleby (Dickens) 106
Nicholson, Ben 274
nickel 4, 44, 46, 298–9
Niépce, Joseph Nicéphore 235
Nilson, Lars 7, 85, 355
Niobe 284
niobium 7, 284–6, 379
nitrogen 25, 86, 129, 135, 154, 195, 269, 332, 334, 336
Nobel Institute (Stockholm) 25
Nobel Prize 25, 27–8, 81, 86, 129, 161, 163, 164, 170, 334
Nobel, Alfred 385
nobelium 374
noble gases see inert gases
Normandie (ship) 299
North Texas University 380
Norway 96, 351
Norwich 268, 293–4
nuclear waste 76, 79
nuclear weapons 11, 76, 79, 138, 168, 174, 222
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Tennessee) 79
Occult Chemistry (Besant and Leadbeater) 193
occultum 193, 195–6
Odysseus 106, 137
offerings, sacred and votive 13, 18, 19, 20, 92, 223
Oganessian, Yuri 397–8
‘The Old Lie’ (Owen) 131–2
Olentzero 68
Olympic Games 35
O’Neill, Joseph 174
Ophir 18
Orfila, Mathieu 320
Orphée (film) 90–92
Orpheus 1, 90–92, 221
Orvieto 271
Orwell, George 66
osmium 2, 9, 33, 40, 42, 59–60, 368
Ovid 301
Owen, Wilfred 131–3
oxidation 106, 159–60, 222, 292 see also combustion
oxygen 1, 61, 64, 86, 106, 120
and anti-oxidants 154, 158
and oxidation 159–60
and phlogiston 153–4
component of acids 134–5, 150, 152
component of water 147–9, 153
effect of on plants and animals 123
necessary for life 155–8
therapy 156–7
‘Oxygen’ (McGough) 156
ozone 86, 158 see also oxygen
ozone layer 136, 147
The Pale Horse (Christie) 186–9
palladium 7, 37, 4–43, 59
Panama 109, 110
Pantheon (Rome) 237, 271
Panthéon-Sorbonne University (Paris) 101
Paolozzi, Eduardo 302
Paracelsus 247
Paradise Lost (Milton) 28, 104, 330
Paris 96, 101, 137, 143–4, 151, 161–2, 164, 167, 170, 171, 212, 251–2, 256, 262, 302, 305, 307, 324, 337, 349, 350, 351, 354, 362, 376, 380
Paris Green 185
Parker, Cornelia 12, 230–31
The Parthenon (Athens) 271
Pasadena (California) 180
Pathfinder (spacecraft) 51
Patterson, Simon 1
Paxton, Joseph 54
Peary, Robert 45
Pendennis (Thackeray) 182
Pepys, Samuel 125
Perey, Marguerite 170–71
The Perfect Wagnerite (Shaw) 26
periodic table 1–3, 8–11, 55–6, 59, 71, 78, 81, 171, 197, 222, 227, 284, 323, 326, 332, 351, 359, 362, 376–7
and Mendeleev 81–6, 88–9, 192, 334
recent additions to 392–5, 398
Perriand, Charlotte 255
Persia 51, 232, 307, 309–10
Peru 18–19, 327
Peter the Great (Russia) 88
pewter 207, 255, 262, 304 see also tin
Phidias 271, 274
Philadelphia 212
Philippines 18
phlogiston 153–4 see also oxygen
Phoenicians 199–201, 270, 286
phosphorus 136, 151, 154, 389–90
and ‘phosphorescence’ 113
and human spontaneous combustion 114
and incendiary weapons 126–8
isolation from urine 115–23, 124
Phosphorus (morning ‘star’) 112
Picasso, Pablo 94, 267
pigments 8, 93, 96, 185, 270, 286–97, 307–16, 344, 381 see also named pigments
Pikes Peak (Colorado) 157
Pissarro, Camille 312
pitchblende 161–3, 169–70
Pizarro, Francisco 18–19
Pizarro, Gonzalo 19
platina 32, 34, 39, 41, 42
platinum 59, 258, 260, 349
as more valued than gold 29–30, 34–7
‘the eighth metal’ 31
in product brands 9
jewellery 29
malleable form 32–4, 38–43
Platinum Blonde (film) 30
Pliny the Elder 16, 17, 25, 200, 201, 275
Pluto (planet) 74
plutonium 8, 160, 394
and nuclear waste 77–8, 292
demonization of 76, 350
homoeopathic 79–81
synthesis 70, 73–6, 392
used in nuclear weapons 11, 79, 221
Plymouth (Devon) 107, 144, 310
Poland 2, 161, 208, 397
Polk, James 22
Pollock, Jackson 290
polonium 2, 7, 162, 163, 169, 189, 362, 363
The Pool of London (Derain) 312
Porton Down (Wiltshire) 293
Post, Emily 304
Poston, David 276–7, 279, 283
potassium 2, 135, 177, 179, 180, 266, 379, 392
praseodymium 359, 366, 376
Prévert, Jacques 252
Priestley, Joseph 123, 149–52, 153, 155, 158, 160
promethium 59, 71, 359–60
Prouvé, Jean 263
Puerto Rico 20, 300
Qin Shi Huang (China) 92–3
Quarles, Francis 112
quartz 21, 22, 3–7, 328, 379, 384–5
Quinn, Marc 14–15
The Qur’an 43
Rabbit (Koons) 305
radiation sickness 81, 164, 168
Radio City Music Hall (New York) 261
radioactivity and radioactive elements 2, 3, 59, 71, 72, 76, 78, 80, 86, 160–62, 164–5, 167, 170–71, 189, 192, 221, 292, 334, 349, 360, 368, 386–7, 391–3
radium 59, 362
dangers of 168–9
in product brands 9, 160, 166–8, 170, 171
isolation 162–3
used in cancer treatment 164–5
Radium (USA) 165
Radium Institute (Paris) 167, 169
Radium Research Institute (Vienna) 167
Radium Springs (USA) 165
Radiumbad (Germany) 165
radon 165–6, 167, 334
Raedwald 47
Rain, Steam, and Speed (Turner) 54
Ralegh, Walter 19
Ramsay, William 71, 85–6, 164, 192, 195, 197, 331–5, 339, 349, 360, 391
Randall, James 134
rare earths 350, 357, 359–62, 363, 367–8, 373–4, 376, 378, 387, 389 see also named elements
Ravenna 68
Rayleigh, Lord 332
Reagan, Ronald 174
Red Studio (Matisse) 289
reduction 106, 159 see also oxidation
Renan, Ernest 363
Renishaw Hall (Derbyshire) 254
Revelation 103, 112, 343
Revere, Paul 240
Das Rheingold (Wagner) 25–6, 49, 211
rhenium 2
Rhine river 25–6, 27, 150
rhodium 41–2, 59
The Ring Cycle see Das Rheingold (Wagner)
The Rings of Saturn (Sebald) 113
Rio, Andrés Manuel del 324, 326
The Rite of Spring (Stravinsky) 336
The Road Home (Tremain) 208–9
The Road to Wigan Pier (Orwell) 66
Robert the Bruce (Scotland) 213
Roberts, Edward 61
Robin Hood 67–8
Robinson, Kim Stanley 174–5
Roche, Charles François de la 235
Rodin, Auguste 212
roentgenium 397
Roman Empire and Romans 11, 17, 52, 53, 165, 166, 205, 220, 232, 234, 266, 271, 275–6, 286, 307, 361
Roman mythology 50, 74, 222
Rome 236, 237, 272, 366
Röntgen, Wilhelm 397
Der Rosenkavalier (Strauss) 223–4, 226
Ross, John 45
Roughing It (Clemens) 22
Royal College of Chemistry (London) 187
Royal Institution (London) 69, 176
Royal Society (London) 38, 40, 42, 66, 118, 125, 144, 177, 187, 188, 244, 334, 370
rubidium 179–80
ruby 327–9
Ruggieri, Claude-Fortuné 185
Ruscha, Ed 341
Ruskin, John 54–5, 135, 159
Russia 34, 86, 351, 386, 397 see also Soviet Union
rust 54–5, 151, 159, 207 see also iron
ruthenium 59
Rutherford, Ernest 82
rutherfordium 393
Saint Augustine 113
St Denis (near Paris) 305–7
St Helena 315–17
St Michael’s Mount (Cornwall) 204
St Michaelis (Hamburg) 114, 127
St Paul’s (London) 236–9, 246
St Petersburg 82, 88
St Petersburg (Russian) Academy of Sciences 81, 85, 87
Sala, Angelo 235
Salisbury (Wiltshire) 294
Salva, Francisco 241
samarium 359, 362, 373–7
Samarsky, Vasili 373, 374, 375–6, 378
Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) 110
Santa Claus 68
sapphire 306, 328
Sardis river 24
Sargent, John Singer 132
Sartre, Jean-Paul 12, 173
Satie, Erik 336
Saxony 85, 165, 179, 308, 310, 311
Scandinavia 349, 351, 355, 374
scandium 7, 85, 349, 351, 355, 359
Scheele, Carl 125, 134, 136, 151–2, 159, 316, 352, 353, 354, 355, 369
Scheele’s green 316
Schinkel, Karl Friedrich 246, 247–8, 250
Schönberg, Arnold 249, 251
Schulze, Johann Heinrich 235
Schweppe, Jacob 150
Science Museum (London) 3, 4
Scilly, Isles of 201, 202, 204
Scoop (Waugh) 250
‘The Scythians’ (Blok) 87
Seaborg, Glenn 70–76, 78, 89–90, 392, 393–4, 396, 398
seaborgium 393–4
Sebald, W. G. 113
The Secret Agent (Conrad) 172
Seelig, Moritz 247–8
Sefström, Nils 324–6, 329
selenium 358, 371, 389
Self, Will 174
Sella, Andrea 211, 250, 380
Selters (Seltz) (France) 150
Sendivogius, Michael 120
Sennett, Richard 279
Serra, Richard 55
Severn river 53, 311
Shakespeare, William 7, 9, 156, 209, 215, 232, 234, 268
Shanghai 300
Shaw, George Bernard 26, 164
$he (Hamilton) 303
Shelley, Mary 155
Shelley, Percy 156
Shillito, Ann Marie 283–5
Shiva 47
A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bryson) 258
Siena 271, 313
silicon 8, 53, 66, 85, 371
silver 2, 4, 9, 29, 38, 51, 89, 98, 203, 205
and photography 234–6
and social class 223–4
and tarnish 228–31
as coin 7, 17, 165, 231–3
as one of the ancient metals 31, 103, 227, 250, 278
association with femininity 11, 46, 224–6
high reflectivity of 227
in Christian liturgy 206, 233–4
in relation to gold and platinum 18–19, 20, 23, 31–3, 35–6, 215–16
Sima Qian 92–3
Simpson, Wallis 29, 35, 37
The Simpsons (television series) 78
Siren (Quinn) 13–15
Sitwell, Edith 253–5
Sitwell, Osbert 254
Sketches by Boz (Dickens) 182
Sklodowska, Marie 161 see also Curie, Marie
smalt and smaltite 307–12, 352 ‘Smatrold’ (Grieg) 309
smiths and smithery 26, 32, 46, 48–9, 206, 207, 208, 211, 218, 228–9, 233, 256, 279, 298, 327
Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC) 379
Snow, C. P. 371
The Snows of Kilimanjaro (Hemingway) 139
sodium 2, 7, 11, 146, 256, 259, 266,
isolation of 176–8, 179
monochromatic spectrum of 121, 180, 187, 191
street lighting 172–6, 208, 350
used in fireworks 180, 182, 184
Sondheim, Stephen 300
Sontag, Susan 235
Sorbonne University (Paris) 101, 161, 363
South Africa 173
Southey, Robert 178
Soviet Union 138
spa waters 54, 150, 165–6
Spain 18–21, 32–4, 38, 94–5, 145, 183–4, 199, 200, 201, 211, 232
Spanish New World 18, 20, 32–4, 38, 39, 232, 239
spectra and spectroscopy 7, 51, 84, 179–80, 187, 190–93, 197, 332–4, 358, 361, 362, 392, 394
Spenser, Edmund 330
Spirit of St Louis (aeroplane) 262
Stalin, Josef 47
Stanford University 323
Stannard, Mary 320
‘The Steadfast Tin Soldier’ (Andersen) 206
steel 45–8, 52–5, 60, 208, 210, 222, 227, 255, 261, 280–83, 299, 300, 305, 323, 369 see also iron
Stein, Gertrude 252
Steinbeck, John 29, 321–2, 323
Stephenson, Robert 53
Stockholm 25, 71, 151, 325, 326, 349, 351–4, 355, 363, 371, 372, 374, 379, 380, 381, 382, 396
Stolen Thunder (Parker) 230–31
Strabo 18, 200, 201
Strasbourg 218
Stratton, Winfield 23
Strauss, Richard 223, 225
Stravinsky, Igor 274, 336
Periodic Tales Page 41
