History of Niobium
The discovery of Niobium was in 1801 by C. Hatchett, an American scientist. The name Niobium came from the word "Niobe" which meant "daughter of Tantalus" and tantalum is closely related to Niobium ("Winter, Mark"). Hatchett discovered this new element in an ore called columbite. At fiirst, this mineral sample was thought to be chromium and was analyzed. After experimenting with the mineral it was determined that this mineral was not chromium, but some oxide of an unknown element. The new element was named columbium. Many scientist believed columbium and tantalum to be the same element and the element columbium was not universally accepted. Fifty years later a European scientist determined the element niobium to be from tantalum. It was later determined that columbium and niobium were the same element and some scientist tried to change the name niobium back to columbium. This idea never succeeded.
The metal Niobium was prepared for the first time in 1864 by Blomstrand who reducing the chloride by heating it in a hydrogen atmosphere (Winter, Mark).
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