Discovery of argon

Argon was discovered in 1894 by Lord Rayleigh and William Ramsay. Rayleigh noticed that nitrogen extracted from air was slightly denser than nitrogen made from chemical compounds, and Ramsay helped him to show that the difference was caused by a previously unknown gas in the atmosphere. By removing oxygen and nitrogen from air, they isolated this heavier, chemically inert gas and announced it later that year. It was named from the Greek argos, meaning idle or lazy, because it refused to react with anything. Argon was the first of the noble gases to be found, and it makes up nearly one percent of the air. Its discovery led to Ramsay's work on the other noble gases, and both men received Nobel Prizes in 1904, Rayleigh in physics and Ramsay in chemistry. Argon is used in welding and in light bulbs.

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