Elhuyar, Juan Jose

Tungsten (W, [Xe]4/145d46s2), name after the Swedish tung sten (heavy stone), symbol after the name of mineral wolframite (from which it was originally isolated). The name wolfram is still used mainly in the German literature. Isolated (1783) by Spanish chemists Juan Jose and Fausto d Elhuyar. 

In the mid-1700s a number of scientists experimented with and attempted to isolate element 74 by treating ores of other metals with reagents. One problem was that tungsten was often confused with tin and arsenic. It was not until 1783 that Don Fausto de Elhuyar (1755-1833) and his brother Don Juan Jose de Elhuyar isolated a substance from tin ore that they called wolframite. They named it after the mineral in which it was found. At about the same time the Swedish named it tung sten, which means heavy stone in Swedish. This explains the potentially confusing use of W for the symbol for tungsten. 

Tungsten w 1783 (Vergara, Spain) Don Juan Jose de Elhuyar and Don Fausto de Elhuyar (both Spanish) 153... 

Spanish brothers Juan Jose and Fausto de Elhuyar Metal with the highest melting and boiling points sometimes called wolfram, hence its symbol used in light bulb filaments helps steel blades hold their sharpness. 

Soon after this Seminary was founded in 1777, two brilliant and promising youths of Basque and French lineage, Don Juan Jose de Elhuyar y de Zubice (1754-1796) and his younger brother, Don Fausto, were commissioned to study abroad. Don Juan Jose was sent by the King... 

The Seminary of Vergara. It was here that Don Juan Jose and Don Fausto de Elhuyar carried out their remarkable analysis of wolframite, which resulted in the isolation of a new metal, wolfram, or tungsten. Among the professors at this Seminary were L.-J. Proust, Francois Chabaneau, and Fausto de Elhuyar. ... 

Ryden, Stig, "Don Juan Jose de Elhuyar en Suecia (1781-1782) y el descub-... 

Spanish botanist, physician, and ecclesiastic who devoted his life to studying the natural history of northern South America. He investigated the cinchona (or chm-chona) forests of Colombia (New Granada) and collaborated with Don Juan Jose de Elhuyar in developing its mines. He stated that the gold m the ores of Choco cannot be separated from the platinum except by amalgamation (87)... 

Don Juan Jose de Elhuyar and his brother Fausto prepared tungsten metal as proposed above and named it Wolfram. As already indicated, this name remained only in... 

Tungsten is a metallic transition element in Period 6, Group 6 of the Periodic Table. It was first described in 1783 by Spanish brothers Juan Jose and Fausto de Elhuyar. They named the element Wolfram after a term used by the ancient tin miners in Saxony-Bohemia, describing a still unknown mineral. The name was later changed to tungsten, derived from the Swedish words tung and sten (meaning heavy stone ). 

Fausto and Juan Jose de Elhuyar greatly promoted this project and got it into practice. They are considered to be the creators of the first institution dedicated to the teaching of science in Mexico. These two famous scientists discovered tungsten in the Patriotic Seminary, Vergara (Spain) in 1783 (10). Their discovery was published with the title The chemical analysis of wolfram and an examination of a new metal, which makes part of its composition". 

Chymicum in Stockholm. The two Spanish brothers Juan Jose and Fausto d Elhuyar (see Chapter 26 Tungsten) were both sent to Freiberg in 1778. Juan Jose continued in Uppsala in 1782. Later - in the 19 century - Berzelius and his laboratory became the goal for the visits to Sweden. 

---