Helium
Symbol He and the second element on the periodic table
When and who discovered it :
while observing a solar eclipse he noticed the yellow spectral emission lines of the element. Before it was thought that helium only existed in the sun because it couldn't be made in a lab, that was until 1895 when Sir William Ramsay did an experiment with cleveite. The cleveite was exposed to mineral acids and then he collected the Helium gas it produced.
Also in the same year two Swedish chemists, Per Teodor Cleve and Nils Abraham, independently discovered Helium.
The origin of the name :
Uses :
Helium in its liquid form is used to keep satellite instruments from overheating.
It is also used to detect leaks, for example in a car air-conditioning system, it is also used to inflate car air-bags.
For people working under pressurized conditions (such as deep- sea divers) they use a mixture of
80% Helium and 20% oxygen as a artificial atmosphere.
A gas laser used to scan barcodes in supermarkets is a Helium-Neon one.
Helium is also used in rocket fuel.
So we now use helium for lots of things besides filling up balloons.
Supply and demand :
So next time if you have a helium balloon make sure not to lose it, otherwise you're just being wasteful.