Hatchett

Niobium, discovered by Hatchett ia 1801, was first named columbium. In 1844, Rosed thought he had found a new element associated with tantalum (see Tantalum AND tantalum compounds). He called the new element niobium, for Niobe, daughter of Tantalus of Greek mythology. In 1949, the Union of Pure and Apphed Chemistry setded on the name niobium, but in the United States this metal is stiU known also as columbium. Sometimes called a rare metal, niobium is actually more abundant in the earth s cmst than lead. 

In the same year that del Rio found his erythronium, C. Hatchett examined a mineral which had been sent to England from Massachusetts and had lain in the British Museum since 1753. From it he isolated the oxide of a new element which he named columbium, and the mineral columbite, in honour of its country of origin. Meanwhile in Sweden A. G. Ekeberg was studying some Finnish minerals and in 1802 claimed to have identified a new element which he named tantalum because of the difficulty he had had in dissolving the mineral in acids. It was subsequently thought that the two elements were one and the same, and this view persisted until at least 1844 when H. Rose examined a columbite sample and showed that two distinct elements were involved. 

In 1846 Heinrich Rose (1795-1864) proved that Hatchett had obtained a mixture of two elements, which he separated into tantalum and niobium... 

Niobium (Nb, [Kr]4d45s1), name and symbol after the Greek mythological heroine Niobe (Tantalus daughter). Discovered (1801) by Charles Hatchett. The name niobium is now used in place of the original name columbium . 

Niobium has a rather confusing history, starting in 1734 when the first governor of Connecticut, John Winthrop the Younger (1681—1747), discovered a new mineral in the iron mines of the New England. He named this new mineral columbite. Although he did not know what elements the mineral contained, he believed it contained a new and as yet unidentified element. Hence, he sent a sample to the British Museum in London for analysis. It seems that the delivery was mislaid and forgotten for many years until Charles Hatchett (1765-1847) found the old sample and determined that, indeed, a new element was present. Hatchett was unable to isolate this new element that he named columbium, which was derived from the name of Winthrop s mineral. 

Niobium Nb 1801 (London, England) 1844 (Berlin, Germany) Charles Hatchett (British) Heinrich Rose (German) 124... 

British mineralogist Charles Hatchett Soft metal found in the mineral columbite, along with iron and manganese combined with germanium it forms an excellent high-temperature superconductor. 

The element was discovered in 1801 by British chemist Charles Hatchett during analysis of a black mineral sample from the British Museum, originally sent in 1753 from Connecticut. He named the element columbium, after the country of its origin, Columbia (United States). In 1844, Rose announced the discovery of a new element which he named as niobium, in honor of Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus, the mythological Goddess of Tears. Later, it was established that Hatchett s columbium and Roses niobium were the same element. Both names remained in use for more than one hundred years. In 1949 at the Fifteenth International Union of Chemistry Congress held at Amsterdam, the name niobium was officially adopted as the international name. 

Charles Hatchett analyzed magnetic pyrite and stated that the discovery of iron in pyrite is comparatively recent. According to Henckel, said he, this was first noticed by our countryman Martin Lister, a member of this learned Society [the Royal Society]. .. (182). 

Although molybdenite was for several years the only known source of molybdenum, the Abbe F. X. Wulfen in 1785 described a lead mineral from Carinthia which had previously been regarded as lead tungstate, and when M. H. Klaproth analyzed a specimen of it from Bleyberg in 1792-94, he found it to be lead molybdate (76). Two years later, Charles Hatchett examined a larger specimen of it and confirmed Klaproth s conclusion. This mineral is now known as wulfenite. 

J. he element columbium (niobium) was discovered in 1801 by the English chemist Charles Hatchett, who was bom in London in 1765. As a young man in his thirties he engaged actively in chemical research, and published in the Philosophical Transactions an analysis o lead molybdate from Carinthia and the results of some experiments on shell and bone (2), and in Nicholson s Journal an analysis of an earth from New South Wales called Sydneia, or Terra Australis (81). 

The discovery on which his fame rests was announced before the Royal Society on November 26, 1801, in a paper entitled Analysis of a Mineral from North America containing a Metal hitherto Unknown (3). This mineral, now known as columbite, is a black rock found in New England, and the specimen Hatchett analyzed had an interesting history. 

John Winthrop the Younger, 1606-1676. First governor of Connecticut. Alchemist, manufacturing chemist, and physician. His grandson sent the columbite from which Charles Hatchett later isolated the metal columbium. 

The original, historic specimen of columbite is preserved in the British Museum (67). A portion of it was used by Charles Hatchett in 1802 in his famous research which culminated in the discovery of columbium. In 1809 Dr. W. H. Wollaston obtained permission to detach another portion of it for an investigation, from which he incorrectly concluded that columbium and tantalum are identical (68). 

Since columbite is a very complex mineral indeed, containing niobic, tantalic, titanic, and tungstic acids, zirconia, thoria, ceria, and yttria, Hatchett must have possessed great analytical ability in order to discover in it the new element, columbium. Although the greatest chem-... 

Autograph Letter of Charles Hatchett. William Thomas Brande (1788-1866), Davy s successor at the Royal Institution, was Charles Hatchett s son-in-law. The English edition of Brande s Manual of Chemistry was dedicated to Hatchett. 

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