Having put another hundred grains of this powder into a Zamora crucible, provided with
charcoal, and well covered, and placed in a strong fire, where it remained an hour and a
half, we found, on breaking the crucible after it was cool (q), a button, which fell to powder
between the fingers. Its colour was dark brown; and on examining it with a [magnifying]
glass, there were seen a congeries of metallic globules, among which some were the bigness
of a pin’s head, and when broke had a metallic appearance at the fracture in colour like
steel.
According to footnote q, the first attempt failed since they opened the crucible
while still hot causing the contents to self-ignite. As in the case of molybdenum, the
temperature must be controlled in order to obtain tungsten rather than tungsten
carbides. The reduction of WO 3 with carbon starts at 783 °C, but at higher temperatures, metallic tungsten reacts with carbon [43].
In Germany, the name Scheel or Scheelium was suggested for the new metal but
this name never stuck. In German and Swedish, the metal is known as Wolfram and
volfram, respectively, explaining Berzelius’ choice of the chemical symbol W.
Several languages derive their name for the metal from the Swedish word tungsten
tungsten (English), tungsténe (French), tungsteno (Italian) and tungstênio
(Portuguese).
Scheele was enthusiastic over the isolation of metallic tungsten, and wrote to
Bergman in April 1784: “I like that Mr. Luyarte has obtained tungsten regulus, I hope
he has sent a sample to Mr Professor”. A detailed account on tungsten and its
properties was published by Crell, [44] and Bergman announced the discovery to his
Swedish audience in his last original paper [45]. Given Scheele’s and Bergman’s
contributions, it is not fair to give the d’Elhuyar brothers the full credit for the
discovery of tungsten.
15.6 Establishing Platinum, Cobalt, Nickel
and Manganese as Unique Metals
Platinum has been known to native South Americans for centuries, and it would be
very difficult to name a discoverer for platinum. The discovery is usually attributed
to Spanish general and explorer Antonio de Ulloa (1716–1795), who brought
platinum to Europe, but as he was no scientist, he did not investigate the metal.
Many believed it to be a gold alloy. A short account was given in a letter from
British physician William Brownrigg (1712–1800) to William Watson in 1750 [46].
The first more extensive chemical investigation was reported in two papers by
Scheffer published in 1752 [47, 48]. Scheffer’s samples were unfortunately not
pure, and platinum was still not universally accepted as a new metal. Bergman
made important contributions in preparing pure platinum and establishing platinum
as an individual metal.
Alströmer had presented Bergman with a large sample of about 1.7 kg (“nearly 4
skålpund”) of platinum, and a few years later Bergman reported his experiments in
order to establish the elemental nature of platinum [49]. It had, wrote Bergman,
224
15 New Metals
charcoal, and well covered, and placed in a strong fire, where it remained an hour and a
half, we found, on breaking the crucible after it was cool (q), a button, which fell to powder
between the fingers. Its colour was dark brown; and on examining it with a [magnifying]
glass, there were seen a congeries of metallic globules, among which some were the bigness
of a pin’s head, and when broke had a metallic appearance at the fracture in colour like
steel.
According to footnote q, the first attempt failed since they opened the crucible
while still hot causing the contents to self-ignite. As in the case of molybdenum, the
temperature must be controlled in order to obtain tungsten rather than tungsten
carbides. The reduction of WO 3 with carbon starts at 783 °C, but at higher temperatures, metallic tungsten reacts with carbon [43].
In Germany, the name Scheel or Scheelium was suggested for the new metal but
this name never stuck. In German and Swedish, the metal is known as Wolfram and
volfram, respectively, explaining Berzelius’ choice of the chemical symbol W.
Several languages derive their name for the metal from the Swedish word tungsten
tungsten (English), tungsténe (French), tungsteno (Italian) and tungstênio
(Portuguese).
Scheele was enthusiastic over the isolation of metallic tungsten, and wrote to
Bergman in April 1784: “I like that Mr. Luyarte has obtained tungsten regulus, I hope
he has sent a sample to Mr Professor”. A detailed account on tungsten and its
properties was published by Crell, [44] and Bergman announced the discovery to his
Swedish audience in his last original paper [45]. Given Scheele’s and Bergman’s
contributions, it is not fair to give the d’Elhuyar brothers the full credit for the
discovery of tungsten.
15.6 Establishing Platinum, Cobalt, Nickel
and Manganese as Unique Metals
Platinum has been known to native South Americans for centuries, and it would be
very difficult to name a discoverer for platinum. The discovery is usually attributed
to Spanish general and explorer Antonio de Ulloa (1716–1795), who brought
platinum to Europe, but as he was no scientist, he did not investigate the metal.
Many believed it to be a gold alloy. A short account was given in a letter from
British physician William Brownrigg (1712–1800) to William Watson in 1750 [46].
The first more extensive chemical investigation was reported in two papers by
Scheffer published in 1752 [47, 48]. Scheffer’s samples were unfortunately not
pure, and platinum was still not universally accepted as a new metal. Bergman
made important contributions in preparing pure platinum and establishing platinum
as an individual metal.
Alströmer had presented Bergman with a large sample of about 1.7 kg (“nearly 4
skålpund”) of platinum, and a few years later Bergman reported his experiments in
order to establish the elemental nature of platinum [49]. It had, wrote Bergman,
224
15 New Metals