Wolframite reduction

The de Elhuyar brothers concluded from their analysis that wolframite is composed of wolframic acid combined with iron and manganese. Their method of obtaining the metal by reduction of tungstic (wolframic) acid with charcoal has been described in other papers (4, 6, 7, 8). As late as 1786 the great analytical chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth admitted that all his own attempts had failed and that up to the present only Hr. Elhuyar has succeeded in getting the metal (9). 

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