Prometheus was a Titan in Greek mythology. Prometheus felt sorry for mankind when he saw them shivering in the cold and he decided to give them a great gift that was "a good servant and a bad master". He then stole fire from the hearth of the gods and gave it to men. The metal promethium does not exist on Earth and although its existence was predicted in the early 1900’s, the element was only synthesized in an experimental reactor in the 1960’s. Promethium is radioactive and the bulk of the known radio-isotopes decay over a very short period. The metal was named after Prometheus because of the fact that something was created which previously did not exist on the planet and the realisation that radioactive material, like fire, can be a good servant and a bad master.

We liked the story because of the obvious link between fire, energy and electricity. We also saw parallels between dirty energy (high CO2 emissions) being a good servant in that it makes civilised life possible but with a bad master component in the climate change knock-on effects. As such, we named the company after the element promethium. Today, we draw inspiration from the creation story and we hope to make a small contribution towards reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions.