Before scientists knew about the elements and their properties, bismuth was a source of confusion. Many early scholars thought that metals did not just "exist," but that they grew inside the earth and changed from type to type. They thought that metals started out as lead, then went to tin, then bismuth, and lastly, silver or gold. One thing that made them believe this was that miners often find bismuth on top of veins of silver.
Even before that, the Incas in Macchu Picchu had made some knives out of bismuth and iron smelted together. Apparently, even the Incas had some idea about advantages of using bismuth in creating alloys and mixing metals.
There were some scientists, like Georgius Agricola, thought that bismuth was a separate metal, or even an element. In 1753, it was recognized as a distinct element. It was only then that Claude-François Geoffrey studied bismuth and concluded that it was not a type of lead, but a separate element.
The first name that Bismuth had been weissemasse, which means, "white mass."Now, the word comes from the German word "bisemutum."
Bismuth can be found in nature in its pure, elemental form, and in compounds. The two most common ores of bismuth are bismite (Bi2O3) and bismuthinite (BiS3 ). It can also be found as a byproduct of gold, silver, copper, and lead.