The Gases and how to use them

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With a name taken from the Greek helios for "sun", helium is the second lightest and second most abundant gas in the known universe (hydrogen being number one). Because of its scarcity in our atmosphere its existence was not suspected until spectroscopic measurements revealed an unknown element present in the sun. The discovery of helium is generally credited to Janssen and Lockyear in 1868.
As no helium compounds are known, this family of gases was once thought to be inert. In 1962 the first noble gas compound was prepared with xenon (see below). Still, helium only occurs in uncombined form and must either be extracted from the atmosphere by liquefaction of air or separated from deposits of natural gas. It is thought that some of the terrestrial helium is the product of the alpha decay of radioactive isotopes beneath the crust.
Helium is the only known element which cannot be converted to a solid simply by cooling. It has 98% the lifting power of hydrogen with none of the ...