text: During 1906-1907, James prepared a substantial amount of highly purified lutetia, identifying it as a rare earth element that had not previously been extracted. Because he  did not publish his results immediately, two other chemists published their own methods and results for the extraction of the new element before him: Georges Urbain and Carl Auer von Welsbach. All three scientists successfully separated ytterbia into the oxides of two elements, which were eventually named ytterbium and lutetium). None of these chemists were able to isolate pure lutetium, although James' separation was of very high quality.