Discovery of germanium

Germanium was discovered by Clemens A. Winkler (1838-1902) at Freiberg, Germany in 1886.

Its existence had been predicted by Mendeleyev who saw that there had to be an element below silicon and above tin in group IV of his periodic table.  In his report on the Periodic of the Chemical Elements published in 1869 Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev predicted the existence of several unknown chemical elements.

Winkler obtained his germanium from the mineral argyrodite, which is Ag8GeS6. At that time, Winkler was working at the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology. The new mineral proved to be combination of silver, sulfur and a new element.

After a careful examination, Winkler was able to isolate a new element in the elemental state.

Winkler named the new element germanium (from Latin word, Germania for Germany) in honor of his homeland.

Germanium did not become economically significant until after 1945, when its properties as a semiconductor were recognized as being very useful in electronics.

Germanium diode

However, during World War II, small amounts of germanium had begun to be used in some special electronic devices, mostly diodes. The development of the germanium transistor in 1948 opened the door to countless application of solid state electronics.
Discovery of germanium