Osmium [SEP] discoverer or inventor
isotopes, but it has been observed only for , presumably due to very long half-lives. It is predicted that and can undergo double beta decay but this radioactivity has not been observed yet.
History.
Osmium was discovered in 1803 by Smithson Tennant and William Hyde Wollaston in London, England. The discovery of osmium is intertwined with that of platinum and the other metals of the platinum group. Platinum reached Europe as "platina" ("small silver"), first encountered in the late 17th century in
"Koppel und Co."
In 1892, with the Austrian chemist and inventor Carl Auer von Welsbach, Koppel founded the "Deutsche Gasglühlichtgesellschaft-Aktiengesellschaft " (Degea or DGA, German Gas Light Company), the forerunner of "Auergesellschaft". Koppel was the controlling owner. In 1906, DGA developed the OSRAM light bulb; its name was formed from the German words OSmium", for the element osmium, and "WolfRAM, for the element tungsten. As the owner of the OSRAM trademark, Koppel separated the light