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Discovery
Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, a Swedish mineralogist, is credited with first discovering and naming tungsten, Swedish for "heavy stone," in the Erz Mountains of Northern Europe in 1758. It wasn't until 1783, however, that Spanish brothers and chemists Juan and Fausto de Elhuyar de Suvisa were able to make a metallic compound out of tungsten through a coal-firing procedure originally envisioned two years before by Swedish chemist Torbern Bergman.
Specs
Tungsten is a hardy metallic compound. It is used primarily in the construction of what are known as hard alloys because of high temperature resistance, low vapor pressure and durable expansion properties. It takes more than 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit to boil tungsten, about the temperature of the surface of the sun. Its corresponding high melting point of 6,192 degrees Fahrenheit is second only to carbon. Tungsten is usually found in underground mining operations.
Uses
The products of placing wolffram through a coal-burning process -- sodium tungstate and tungstic acid, the precursors to the hard metal tungsten -- were finally patented for the first manufacturing uses in 1847. Various steels have been made with tungsten since 1855 for numerous building applications. A powder of tungsten also was instrumental in magnifying brightness in early electric lights and is still used in many bulb filaments. The 1923 invention of "hardmetal," of which tungsten formed an integral component, led to what remains the primary use for tungsten in 2011.
Other Uses
Aside from the hard metals, called cemented carbides, tungsten still is used in 2011 to improve various types of steel alloys. The byproducts of its manufacturing process are used in the filaments of light bulbs, as well as for electrical wiring and contacts, TVs and microwaves. Hard metals produced by tungsten are used in construction and for the manufacturing of high-speed tools.