Walter Russell

[Anonymous]

I never heard of this chap until today. He was certainly a fascinating fellow.

He appears to have come up with an alternative to the periodic table of elements in 1926, with space for two elements he called uridium and udium, where we now have neptunium and plutonium.

I have seen it claimed that in 1921, he gathered together the most famous men of the time (Tesla, Einstein, Edison, Marconi etc) and told of them of the dreadful power of uridium and udium, which reside deep underground, converting rock to soil and water through their tremendous radioactive power. I don't know if he really did claim to do this, or if someone else has made all this up subsequently.

Is anyone aware of any articles on the man, which aren't, not to put too fine a point on it, utterly barking? I have been unable to find anything, which is a pity, as he seems the sort of person ripe for a FT write-up.

Here is a picture of his charming table of the elements

 

[Pete Younger]

Link not working, try this one.

 

[Anonymous]

Weird, it's working for me.

 

[OneWingedBird]

Any idea what he based this on?

I only have A level chemistry but there's definitely some very strangly named elements there, and why have so many that come before hydrogen? Surely even then they must have realised it's the first element?

 

[Anonymous]

Any idea what he based this on?

To be honest, I've not had time to wade through the websites - there does appear to be a biography of him online. But in the same way that Russell's work appears not to obey the laws of physics, much of what is written about him refuses to obey the laws of English.

and why have so many that come before hydrogen? Surely even then they must have realised it's the first element?

From the annotation, I think some of those are claimed to be predictions of isotopes of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium), which weren't discovered until the early 30s. As for the stuff in earlier octaves, I think that's supposed to be a bit more metaphysical.

Still, there are some cracking names in there: Buzzeon, Blacton, Eykaon, and what looks wonderfully like Quentin, although perhaps it's really Ouentin.