The discovery of the element is credited to the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth. While he was working in his experimental laboratory in Berlin in 1789, Klaproth was able to precipitate a yellow compound (likely sodium diuranate) by dissolving pitchblende in nitric acid and neutralizing the solution with sodium hydroxide. Klaproth assumed the yellow substance was the oxide of a yet-undiscovered element and heated it with charcoal to obtain a black powder, which he thought was the newly discovered metal itself (in fact, that powder was an oxide of uranium). He named the newly discovered element after the planet Uranus, (named after the primordial Greek god of the sky), which had been discovered eight years earlier by William Herschel. COUNT 5
QSN1 Who discovered uranium? ANS1 Martin Heinrich Klaproth QSN2 In what year did the discovery of uranium occur? ANS2 1789 QSN3 In what city was uranium discovered? ANS3 Berlin QSN4 What did Klaproth probably create when he dissolved pitchblende in nitric acid? ANS4 sodium diuranate QSN5 Who discovered the planet Uranus? ANS5 William Herschel