Historical Background:

History of Tungsten:

Tungsten was originally called wolfram. This was back in the late 1700s when it was discovered. In fact, a few conservative German journals prefer to call element 74 by its original name. Wolfram is an appropriate name because the mineral, wolframite, played an important role in the discovery of this element.

In 1761, one J.G. Lehmann was studying wolframite in his mineral lab. In one of his experiments, he grouped the ore and melted it with sodium nitrate. Dissolving the mixture in water, he found it turned the water green, then red. Having added some hydrochloric acid, he noticed that the spongy white precipitate formed which, upon standing for a week or so, become yellow.

Those were the kinds of clues the chemists used in those days. Unfortunately, Lehmann had the right idea but missed the conclusion. He reported his colorful results as indicating the presence of iron mixed with a bit of zinc. Today we know that wolframite is a mixture of iron and manganese compounded with tungsten tetroxide, (Fe, Mn)WO₄.

It is both interesting and informative to attempt to construct accounts of old experiments in the light of modern knowledge. Fusing the wolframite with sodium nitrate, for example, produced a sodium manganate (green color) which changed to sodium permanganate (red color). The brilliant show of colors masked the interesting part of the reaction where tungsten and tungsten oxides were being reduce from the ore. Adding the Acid produced tungstic acid, H2WO4. Hydrated tungstic acid is a white substance. Drying it produces anhydrous tungstic acid, which we know today as a yellow powder.

Wolframite and other tungsten-bearing ores were later confused with tin and arsenic. In 1783, brothers Juan José and Fausto Elhuyar ended the confusion by isolating the pure tungsten metal from samples of wolframite. Their basic technique, now more than two centuries old, remains the primary method for producing the metal on a commercial scale.

In 1847, Robert Oxland patented in Britain his manufacturing process for sodium tungstate, tungstic acid, and the pure metal, and in 1857, he patented his process for producing tungsten steel. But it was not until 1908, when William David Coolidge obtained his British patent for producing ductile tungsten wire, that the filament industry began. Tungsten-containing high-speed tool steel came to public attention when the Bethlehem Steel Company exhibited its products at the Exposition Universal of 1900 in Paris. In 1927 the Krupp Laboratory at Essen, Ger., discovered that a serviceable product could be produced when the normally brittle tungsten carbide was mixed with a cemented material.

Historical Background from University of Sheffield, England.

History of Tungsten from Element and their Compounds.