Crossword clues for beryllium
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Glucinum \Glu*ci"num\, n. [Cf. F. glucinium, glycium, fr. Gr. ?, sweet. Cf. Glycerin.] (Chem.) A rare metallic element, of a silver white color, and low specific gravity (2.1), resembling magnesium. It never occurs naturally in the free state, but is always combined, usually with silica or alumina, or both; as in the minerals phenacite, chrysoberyl, beryl or emerald, euclase, and danalite. It was named from its oxide glucina, which was known long before the element was isolated. Symbol Gl. Atomic weight 9.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
metallic element, 1863, so called because it figures in the composition of the pale green precious stone beryl and was identified in emerald (green beryl) in 1797 by French chemist Louis Nicolas Vauquelin (1763-1829) and first isolated in 1828. At first and through 19c. also sometimes called glucinum or glucinium.
Wiktionary
n. 1 The chemical element with an atomic number of 4; a light metal with specialist industrial applications. 2 (cx countable English) An atom of this element.
WordNet
n. a light strong brittle gray toxic bivalent metallic element [syn: Be, glucinium, atomic number 4]
Wikipedia
Beryllium is a chemical element with symbol Be and atomic number 4. The vast majority of beryllium extant today is the product of spallation of larger atomic nuclei as a result of collision with cosmic rays and is a relatively rare element in the universe. Within the cores of stars beryllium is depleted as it is fused and creates larger elements. It is a divalent element which occurs naturally only in combination with other elements in minerals. Notable gemstones which contain beryllium include beryl ( aquamarine, emerald) and chrysoberyl. As a free element it is a steel-gray, strong, lightweight and brittle alkaline earth metal.
Beryllium improves many physical properties when added as an alloying element to aluminium, copper (notably the alloy beryllium copper), iron and nickel. Beryllium does not form oxides until it reaches very high temperatures and hence is stable. Tools made of beryllium copper alloys are strong and hard and do not create sparks when they strike a steel surface. In structural applications, the combination of high flexural rigidity, thermal stability, thermal conductivity and low density (1.85 times that of water) make beryllium metal a desirable aerospace material for aircraft components, missiles, spacecraft, and satellites. Because of its low density and atomic mass, beryllium is relatively transparent to X-rays and other forms of ionizing radiation; therefore, it is the most common window material for X-ray equipment and components of particle physics experiments. The high thermal conductivities of beryllium and beryllium oxide have led to their use in thermal management applications.
The commercial use of beryllium requires the use of appropriate dust control equipment and industrial controls at all times because of the toxicity of inhaled beryllium-containing dusts that can cause a chronic life-threatening allergic disease in some people called berylliosis.
Usage examples of "beryllium".
There was cesium in Africa, beryllium in South America, but who knew when some cockeyed revolution would cut off the supply?
And here, reflector fifty-three, bottom slab eighty-eight, top slab with the hole in it for the bullet, eighty, plus the twelve of beryllium, two thirty-three.
It was rare and valuable in a pure state only because we had not as yet perfected a way of extracting beryllium cheaply.
If an aircraft plant, for instance needed a quantity of beryllium, I might be approached to find and purchase it on a commission or a flat sum basis.
In 1930, evidence was obtained to the effect that when beryllium atoms were exposed to alpha rays, something -call it N -emerged which could induce nuclear reactions.
Unfortunately, the figures available for the beryllium nucleus were not quite accurate, and when they were corrected the chance of a nuclear chain reaction involving beryllium disappeared.
His first attempt in that direction involved the interaction of a neutron with a beryllium nucleus in such a way that two neutrons were liberated.
However, it took a fast energetic neutron to interact with the beryllium nucleus, and only slow neutrons were liberated, neutrons with too little energy to interact with further beryllium nuclei.
There, far down below the very foundations of the city, great jaws of beryllium steel were guzzling the bedrock.
The colored beryllium metal of the wall had been ruled with 20,000 lines to the inch, mere scratches, but nevertheless a diffraction grating.
It was a good thing, he thought, that the Altairians were immune to beryllium poisoning.
This was the other time when we met, when we were at that conference in Caracas, the one about taking molybdenum and beryllium out of seawater.
May 1946, when a safety trainer was demonstrating how to perform a critical experiment with a beryllium cap over a plutonium sphere.
The tortured beryllium yielded up neutrons, which shot out in all directions through the uranium mass.
To split the first uranium nucleus by bombarding it with neutrons from the beryllium target took more power than the death of the atom gave up.