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What
the name means:
Tungsten is an element with two names. The
name tungsten derives from the Swedish
words tung, meaning “”heavy” and
sten, meaning “stone”. The name wolfram
is of German origin and derives from the
Latin lupi spuma that was translated
into German as wolf ralm which means
“wolf’s drool”.
Who
identified
tungsten? It the
18th century tin was difficult
to extract because of a white powder that
seemed to stick to it and break it up. This
white powder was given the name wolframite
since it clung onto tin the way that a wolf
clings to a sheep. An Irish chemist, Peter
Woulfe, analysed wolframite in 1779 and
concluded that it might well contain an
unknown element.
In
1781 in Sweden, Carl Scheele was analysing
heavy, white mineral called tungsten.
Scheele concluded that tungsten probably
contained a new element. The white mineral
became known as scheelite.
Two
years later, in 1783, two Spanish chemists,
Fausto de Elhuyar and his brother Juan José
de Elhuyar, took up the study of both
wolframite and scheelite. (Juan José had
studied in Sweden and had visited Carl
Scheele.) The brothers found that the
suspected “new element” in both minerals
was, in fact, the same new metal. They
called this metal wolfran (symbol W).
There
was much disagreement about the naming of
the new metal. In some parts of Europe
wolfran was used and in other parts of
Europe it was known as tungsten. In 1951
the International Union of Pure and Applied
Chemistry (IUPAC) decided that the name
would be wolframium. This pleased no-one.
Wolfram and tungsten continue to be used
and the definitive name still has to be
decided. It is interesting that in Sweden,
where the name tungsten originated, the
metal is known as volfram.
About
tungsten:
Tungsten is a white, brittle metal. It is
used in alloys, strengthening steel, for
example. It is also extremely resistant to
high temperatures. |
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