氦是以希臘神話中泰坦族的太陽神赫利奧斯命名。氦的首次發現是由喬治斯·雷頁特[11]、C. T. 海格上尉[12]、諾曼·R·波格森[13]和約翰·赫歇爾中尉[13]在1868年的日全食觀測到一條未知的黃色光譜,後來被法國的天文學家侏爾斯·詹森[14]證實有這條光譜,同時約瑟夫·諾曼·洛克耶也獨力在英國發現一樣的結果。人們認為發現氦是侏爾斯·詹森和約瑟夫·諾曼·洛克耶的功勞。而洛克耶也是第一個提出這條光譜是來自一種新的元素,並命名此元素。而正式的發現則是在1895年由瑞典的兩位化學家皮·特奧多爾·克利夫(英語:Per Teodor Cleve)和尼爾斯·朗勒特(英語:Abraham Langlet)從瀝青鈾礦中分離出氦。在1903年,在美國發現大存量的天然氦氣井,直到現在依舊為氦氣的最大供應商。
而液態氦則用於低溫(單用氦的最大宗,佔了四分之一),特別是在超導磁體的冷卻中,主要的商業應用是在MRI掃描儀中。 在工業上,氦氣有許多用途。例如:作為加壓和吹掃氣體、電弧焊接時的保護氣體、及參與製造晶體的化學反應過程(如製造矽晶圓時,氦氣佔所產生氣體的一半)。日常生活中的小用途則是作為氣球或飛艇上升所需的氣體。[15]與密度和空氣密度不同的任何氣體一樣,吸入少量氦氣會暫時改變人聲的音調。在科研方面,氦(4He)兩個流體相(He I & He II)的表現性,對於科學家在研究量子力學(特別是超流動性的性質)及觀察如超導電性(產於近乎絕對零度)的現象是很重要的。
在美國,2000年至2004年間僅報告了兩起氦氣死亡事件,其中一名男子於2002年在北卡羅來納州因氣壓傷死亡。[64][69]2003年,在溫哥華有一名青年窒息,而在2000年有一名27歲的澳大利亞男子在吸入氦氣瓶的氦氣後發生栓塞。[64]2006年,有兩名成年人在南佛羅里達窒息。[64][65][70]在2009年和2010年也有案例,一名加利福尼亞青年被發現頭上套著一個掛在一個氦氣罐上的袋子,[71]而在北愛爾蘭的另一名青少年死於氦氣導致的窒息。[72]在俄勒岡州鷹角(英語:Eagle Point, Oregon),一名少女於2012年在一次聚會上死於氣壓傷。[73][74][75]同年,密西根州的一名女孩因缺氧而死亡。 [76]
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= C. T. Haig (1868) "Account of spectroscopic observations of the eclipse of the sun, August 18th, 1868,"Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 17 : 74–80. From p. 74: "I may state at once that I observed the spectra of two red flames close to each other, and in their spectra two broad bright bands quite sharply defined, one rose-madder and the other light golden."
Pogson filed his observations of the 1868 eclipse with the local Indian government,
but his report wasn't published. (Biman B. Nath, The Story of Helium and the Birth of Astrophysics (New York, New York: Springer, 2013), p. 8.) Nevertheless, Lockyer quoted from his report. From p. 320 (頁面存檔備份,存於網際網路檔案館) of Lockyer, J. Norman (1896) "The story of helium. Prologue," Nature, 53 : 319–322 : "Pogson, in referring to the eclipse of 1868, said that the yellow line was "at D, or near D." "
Lieutenant John Herschel (1868) "Account of the solar eclipse of 1868, as seen at Jamkandi in the Bombay Presidency,"Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 17 : 104–120. From p. 113: As the moment of the total solar eclipse approached, " … I recorded an increasing brilliancy in the spectrum in the neighborhood of D, so great in fact as to prevent any measurement of that line till an opportune cloud moderated the light. I am not prepared to offer any explanation of this." From p. 117: "I also consider that there can be no question that the ORANGE LINE was identical with D, so far as the capacity of the instrument to establish any such identity is concerned."
Rose, Melinda. Helium: Up, Up and Away?. Photonics Spectra. October 2008 [2010-02-27]. (原始內容存檔於2010-08-22). For a more authoritative but older 1996 pie chart showing U.S. helium use by sector, showing much the same result, see the chart reproduced in "Applications" section of this article.
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