In 1976 Soviet scientists at Dubna announced they had synthesized element 107 bybombarding 204Bi with heavy nuclei of 54Cr. Reports say that experiments in 1975 hadallowed scientists "to glimpse" the new element for 2/1000 s. A rapidly rotatingcylinder, coated with a thin layer of bismuth metal, was used as a target. This wasbombarded by a stream of 54Cr ions fired tangentially.

The existence of element 107 was confirmed by a team of West German physicists at theHeavy Ion Research Laboratory at Darmstadt, who created and identified six nuclei ofelement 107.