Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets - Relation To Samarskite

Relation To Samarskite

Samarsky–Bykhovets himself was not involved in the studies of samarskite and samarium. As a mining official, he merely granted access to mineral samples from the Urals to the German mineralogist Gustav Rose. Rose in 1839 described a new mineral in those samples and named it uranotantalum believing that its composition is dominated by the chemical element tantalum. In 1846–47, his brother and colleague-mineralogist Heinrich Rose found that the major component of the mineral is niobium and suggested altering the name to avoid confusion. The newly chosen name samarskite merely acknowledged the role of Samarsky–Bykhovets in granting access to the mineral samples. Later, several lanthanide elements had been isolated from this mineral, and one of them, samarium, was named after the mineral, once again honoring Samarsky–Bykhovets.