Facts and History of Scheelite

Although most of the world wide production of tungsten comes from the mineral wolframite, Scheelite is especially abundant in the US and provides the United States with most of its supply. The word "Tungsten" was probably first used by A. F. Cronstedt in 1755, who applied it to the mineral subsequently known as "Scheelite," which is the natural form of calcium tungstate.

C. C. Leonhard named this mineral Scheelite in 1821 in recognition of the discovery made by K. W. Scheele, in 1781. He believed that the mineral was a compound of lime and a previously unknown acid, which he called "Tungstic Acid. Tungsten was first isolated from tungstic aci in 1783 by the de Elhuyar brothers. Before Scheele made his discovery, the mineral was generally regarded as containing tin.

The word tungsten denotes a substance of high density and is derived from the Swedish language, "tung," meaning heavy, and "sten," meaning stone. The metal is known as tungsten in some countries and as wolfram in others, including Sweden, the country of origin of the name tungsten. The chemical symbol W, which is universally used to denote tungsten, suggests that wolfram was formerly the more generally accepted name for the element. In Britain the mineral wolframite is also known as wolfram.



 

Tungsten Powder Manufacturer & Supplier: Chinatungsten Online - www.tungsten-powder.com
Tel.: 86 592 5129696; Fax: 86 592 5129797
Email: sales@chinatungsten.com
Tungsten & Molybdenum Information Bank: http://i.chinatungsten.com
Tungsten News & Tungsten Prices, 3G Version: http://3g.chinatungsten.com
Molybdenum News & Molybdenum Price: http://news.molybdenum.com.cn

• < Prev
• Next >