Sir William Ramsay and Morris William Travers discover three new gaseous elements, all in 1898, by fractional distillation of liquid air. during their search for gases related to argon and helium following their discoveries of these elements.
One of these gases, emitting a unique glow when electrically stimulated, is immediately recognized as a new element, and named neon, for Greek neo, new.
Krypton is named for the Greek kryptos, hidden.
Xenon, discovered spectroscopically six weeks after krypton in an impure sample of the latter, is named for Greek xenon, stranger.
Ramsay had included a periodic table in his 1896 book Gases of the Atmosphere, in which the English chemist correctly positioned the noble gas group despite argon's having a greater atomic weight than potassium.
