The separation of caesium from the minerals which contain it is an exceedingly difficult and laborious process.
Caesium compounds can be readily recognized by the two bright.
Within two years of the invention the authors announced the discovery of two metals, rubidium and caesium, closely allied to sodium, potassium and lithium in properties, in the mineral lepidolite and in the Diirkheim mineral water.
Rubidium, caesium, thallium, indium and gallium were first discovered by means of this instrument; the study of the rare earths is greatly facilitated, and the composition of the heavenly bodies alone determinable by it.
They are silicates, usually orthosilicates, of aluminium together with alkalis (potassium, sodium, lithium, rarely rubidium and caesium), basic hydrogen, and, in some species magnesium, ferrous and ferric iron, rarely chromium, manganese and barium.
