Hydrogen
By: Brian Thompson
Characteristics of Hydrogen
Symbol: H
Atomic number: 1
Atomic weight: 1.008
Group: 1
Period: 1
Color: colorless
Classification: non-metal
The History of Hydrogen
Uses and Interesting Facts about Hydrogen
In 1839, British scientist Sir William Robert Grove did experiments on electrolysis. He thought that if he could separate a water cell into its base components, then he could do It in reverse. The experiments that were conducted eventually lead to what he called a Gas Battery, but later had its name changed to fuel cell by two more scientists; Ludwig Mond and Charles Langer. During 1932 Dr. Francis Thomas Bacon, who was an engineer at Cambridge university in the UK, decided to experiment further with this "fuel cell". With this continued experimentation, Bacon created the Alkaline fuel cell, capable of producing 5kW of power, which is enough to power a welding machine! These fuel cells were used later by NASA during the Apollo missions, and have been used in some way for over 100 missions by NASA. Not only does NASA use these cells, but they can also be found in submarines.