Rutherfordium Character

It names a furnace and, in modern Chinese chemistry, rutherfordium.

In Chinese chemistry, 𬬻 is written for element 104, whose symbol is Rf. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) settled the international name rutherfordium in 1997 after a dispute over names for elements 104 and 105. In Mandarin, 𬬻 sounds like “loo” with a rising tone; that echoes 卢, the first character in 卢瑟福, the Chinese rendering of Ernest Rutherford’s name.

The traditional form 鑪 combines 金, the metal part, with 盧, which supplies the sound. Ancient forms of 盧 appear in oracle-bone inscriptions (writing carved on bones used for divination) and bronze inscriptions; Chinese character-history references connect the form to furnace use. Dictionaries record 鑪 as a hearth or furnace and an incense burner, plus an older sense: an elevated stand at a wine shop.

Why does 𬬻 sometimes show as a box?

The font may not contain this character’s glyph.

𬬻 is outside the Basic Multilingual Plane, and its display is font-dependent. A system without a matching font may substitute an empty box; the text can still contain the correct character. If a reader may lack the font, write Rf or rutherfordium alongside it.

Use an input method that supports supplementary Han characters. In software with hexadecimal Unicode entry, enter 2CB3B; an older input path limited to the basic set may not accept it.