 Discovery Information |
| Who:
Fausto
and
Juan Jose de Elhuyar
|
| When: 1783 |
| Where: Spain |
|
| Name Origin |
| Swedish: tungs ten (heavy stone): W symbol from its German name wolfram. |
|
| Sources |
| Occurs in the minerals scheelite (CaWO4), wolframite [(Fe,Mn)WO4], ferberite and huebnerite. China produces about 70% of the world's supply, but important deposits lie in Bolivia, California, Colorado, Portugal, Russia as well as South Korea. |
|
| Uses |
| When alloyed in small quantities with steel, it greatly increases its hardness. Used widely in the electronics industry. Made into filaments for vacuum tubes and electric lights. Also used in contact points in cars, heat sinks, weights, counterweights, welding electrodes, rocket nozzles and cutting tools. Combined with calcium or magnesium it makes phosphors. |
|
| Notes |
| Some sources give the German chemist
Karl Wilhelm Scheele
as the first to isolate the metal, three years before the d'Elhuyar brothers, in 1780. |
| The light bulb manufacturer OSRAM (founded in 1906 when three german companies; Auer-Gesellerschaft, AEG and Siemens and Halske combined their lamp production facilities), derived its name from the elements of OSmium and wolfRAM - OSRAM. |
