1781,1783

Tungsten

• In 1781, Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Torbern Bergman
• produced a new acid from calcium tungstate,
• which was called tungsten
• and is now called scheelite,
• naming the acid tungstic acid,
• and Bergman realized that the acid
• was the oxide of a new element,
• which he named tungsten,
• in Swedish “heavy stone.”
• In 1783, Juan José, a student of Bergman,
• and his brother Fausto Elhuyar
• found that wolframite contained tungstic acid
• and reduced the acid to the metalic element,
• which he named wolfram,
• which means “wolf foam,”
• after the mineral.
• originally named by Georgius Agricola,
• lupi spuma “wolf’s froth”
• for it rose as a foam
• during smelting of some tin ores
• and so reduced the amount of tin
• like a hungry wolf.

Atomic number 74

• Tungsten carbide for cutting tools
• cemented with cobalt,
• tungsten for jewellery
• cemented with nickel,
• tungsten for high-speed steel
• for rocket nozzles
• for cutting metal at high speeds,
• tungsten for heat-resisting steel
• for engine valves and casings
• and for turbine blades,
• tungsten for plastic-mould steel,
• tungsten for piercing bullets and shrapnel,
• tungsten disulphide for high-temperature lubricants,
• tungsten for incandescent bulb filaments
• and fluorescent lighting electrodes,
• tungsten for microwave oven magnetrons,
• tungsten for the balls of ball-point pens,
• tungsten oxides for ceramic glazes,
• and tungsten for industrial catalysts.

Hard stuff

• Heavier than lead,
• hard and brittle when polycrystalline,
• having the highest melting point,
• and resistant to chemical attacks,
• tungsten is used by some bacteria and archaea.
• Metalic tungsten is safe but the powder is explosive
• and some tungsten compounds are harmful to animal life.
• You know what your mother would say about that.