The Friedrich Ernst Dorn reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
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Friedrich Ernst Dorn

Helping orphans the way you would do it
Friedrich Ernst Dorn (1848-1916) was a German physicist who discovered radon in 1900.

He was studying the natural radioactive decay of radium, trying to put together details about what was happening to the mass when he detected the presence of a radioactive gas. Dorn initially called the gas niton from the Latin word "nitens" meaning "shining' due to the phosphorescence of cooled radon.