Hassium

Hassium was synthesized in 1984 in Darmstadt Germany by Peter Armbruster, Gottfried Munzenberg et al. Atoms of lead were bombarded with ions of iron with a linear accelerator to produce Hassium. It is classified as a transition metal and its appearnce is unknown, but assumed to be silvery white or metallic grey. It is highly radioactive. The name Hassium comes from the Latin for the German State of Hesse where Darmstadt is located.

This information was not a lot to go on, but as you can see I managed. By combining the (old) symbol for radioactivity, with a portion of the Hesse Coat of Arms (rampant lion) and a Gothic style font (Germanic in feel) I came up with my version of the element Hassium for the Periodic Table Printmaking Project.

Periodic Table Printmaking Project

This is a print of one of my blocks for the Periodic Table Printmaking Project started by azuregrackle from Etsy.

I chose Hassium which, as it turns out, is one of those completely unknown elements. It was created in 1984, but there does not seem to be any use for it - maybe because it is radioactive!. It is a transition metal (hmmm - transitioning from something else or to something else?) and it might be a silvery colour. Not too much to go on visually.

So my starting point was the word Hassium, which is Latin for Hesse, the state in Germany where Hassium was discovered. This lion is part of the Hesse coat of arms. I am going to work in the notion of radioactivity as well. For my text (we have to show the periodic symbol and number on the print) I am going to use a Gothic font which could be considered Germanic.