Part of the Vermont Periodic Table
This extremely useful metal is No. 28 in the periodic table of the elements, between the elements cobalt and copper. Nickel is a fairly good conductor of electricity and heat and is one of only four elements (cobalt, iron, nickel and gadolinium) that are ferromagnetic (magnetized easily) at room temperature. Nickel is a transition metal, meaning it has valence electrons in two shells instead of one, allowing it to form several different oxidation states.
Discovery
The discovery of nickel ore in 17th-century Europe is a tale of mistaken identity and superstition. In the 1600s, German miners searching for copper in the Ore Mountains came upon a previously unknown nickel ore (known today as nickel arsenide or niccolite) — a pale brownish-red rock of nickel and arsenic. Believing they'd discovered another copper ore, the miners attempted to extract the copper, but, of course, the rocks failed to produce. The frustrated miners blamed Nickel, a mischievous demon in German mythology, for playing a prank on them and began calling the ore kupfernickel, translated as "copper demon."
About a century later, in 1751, the Swedish alchemist Baron Axel Fredrik Cronstedt tried heating kupfernickel with charcoal and found that its various properties — such as being white and magnetic — clearly revealed that it wasn't copper. Cronstedt is credited as the first person to extract nickel and isolate it as a new element. He dropped the name "kupfer" and called the new element nickel.
Just the facts
- Atomic number (number of protons in the nucleus): 28
- Atomic symbol (on the periodic table of the elements): Ni
- Atomic weight (average mass of the atom): 58.6934
- Density: 8.912 grams per cubic centimeter
- Phase at room temperature: solid
- Melting point: 2,651 degrees Fahrenheit (1,455 degrees Celsius)
- Boiling point: 5,275.4 F (2,913 C)
- Number of isotopes (atoms of the same element with a different number of neutrons): 5 stable; 26 unstable
- Most common isotope: NI-58 (68.077 percent natural abundance)
Parking lot will be busy Monday-Friday.
Cache container is a small painted Christmas tin. The cover opens and shuts hard. I figured I would try it out, if the container proves to be difficult then I will go out and replace it! FTF and STF prizes. Undewhelming, but theme appropriate items inside!