What is "victorium"

Victorium \Vic*to"ri*um\, n. [NL. So named after Victoria, queen of Great Britain.] (Chem.) A probable chemical element discovered by Sir William Crookes in 1898. Its nitrate is obtained byy practical decomposition and crystallization of yttrium nitrate. At. wt., about 117.

n. (cx chemical element obsolete English) A supposed chemical element discovered in 1898, later found to be a mixture of rare earths.

Victorium, originally named monium, is a mixture of gadolinium and terbium. In 1898, English chemist William Crookes reported his discovery of it in his innaugural address as president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He identified the new substance, based on an analysis of the unique phosphorescence and other ultraviolet- visible spectral phenomena, as a new chemical element, although this was later shown to be false. The name monium means "alone", because its spectral lines stood alone at the end of the ultraviolet spectrum. In 1899 Crookes renamed the purported element "victorium" in honor of Queen Victoria's recent diamond jubilee. He assigned it the symbol Vc and the tentative atomic number 117. By 1905, however, French chemist Georges Urbain had proven that victorium was not a distinct element but rather an impurity of gadolinium.