including tantalum (discovered just after columbium),
and named them after the children of Tantalus:
niobium and pelopium.
R. Hermann found a new metal in samarskite
and called it ilmenium.
Franz von Kobell found a new metal in tantalite
and called it dianium.
Not to be outdone, R. Hermann
found yet another new metal in tantalite
and called it neptunium.
Others—Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand,
Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville,
Louis Joseph Troost,
and Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac—
showed that niobium was different from tantalum,
that columbium and dianium were the same as niobium,
and that ilmenium and pelopium
were mixtures of the two.
R. Hermann’s neptumium was probably
a similar mixture, although by this point
no one believed anything from R. Hermann.
Atomic number 41
Microalloyed stainless steels with
less than a tenth of a percent of niobium
are nevertheless tougher, stronger,
more formable, and more weldable.
*
The Gemini program used superalloys
of niobium with iron, nickel, cobalt,
titanium, molybdenum, and aluminum.
*
Niobium alloys with tin or titanium
are used for superconducting magnets.
*
Niobium is used for capacitors
and mobile phone modulators.
Technical stuff
Columbite and tantalite
are orthorhombic;
tapiolite is tetragonal.
Pyrochlore is often
metamict.
The confusion over columbium persisted for sixty-five years
and original name continues to be used in the United States.
Columbium was named after columbite, named in turn after Christopher Columbus,
because it was collected by John Winthrop, the first governer of Virginia.
Heinrich Rose named niobium after Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus in Greek mythology,
because of the niobium’s relationship with tantalum,
which Anders Gustaf Ekeberg named after Tantalus
because the oxide of tantlum was insoluble in acid and metaphorically
unable, as Tantalus in Hades, to quench its thirst.
The confusion over columbium persisted for sixty-five years and original name continues to be used in the United States. Columbium was named after columbite, named in turn after Christopher Columbus, because it was collected by John Winthrop, the first governer of Virginia.
Heinrich Rose named niobium after Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus in Greek mythology, because of the niobium’s relationship with tantalum, which Anders Gustaf Ekeberg named after Tantalus because the oxide of tantlum was insoluble in acid and metaphorically unable, as Tantalus in Hades, to quench its thirst.
See also in The book of science:
Readings on wikipedia:
Other readings: