History

           

  William Hyude Wollaston, an English scientist, discovered palladium in 1803 to 1804.  Wollaston was experimenting with a rugged platinum ore that he had from South America.  Wollaston liquefied the ore in a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids.  He counterbalanced the acid with sodium hydroxide.  Then Palladium was displaced as palladium cyanide with treatment with mercuric cyanide.  Palladium in its metal state was an outcome of this heated cyanide.

    Palladium was named after an asteroid, Pallas, which was discovered approximately the same time as the element.  Pallas is the Greek goddess of wisdom.