Timeline of tungsten
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This is a timeline of tungsten.
Contents
Big picture
| Time period | Development summary |
|---|---|
| 16th century | Tungsten is first discovered in the 16th century by tin miners, who find and then recognize the metal as a newly useful and undiscovered asset.[1] |
| 20th century | In the 1930s, new applications arise for tungsten compounds in the oil industry for the hydrotreating of crude oils. In the 1940s, during World War II, the Germans are the first to use tungsten carbide core in high velocity armor piercing projectiles. In the 1950s, tungsten is added into superalloys to improve performance. In the 1960s, new catalysts are born containing tungsten compounds to treat exhaust gases in the oil industry.[2] |
| 21th century | Currently, most tungsten resources are found in China, South Korea, Bolivia, Great Britain, Russia and Portugal, as well as in California and Colorado. About 80% of world’s supply is controlled by China.[3] Today, tungsten carbide is extremely widespread, with applications including metal cutting, machining of wood, plastics, composites, soft ceramics, chipless forming, mining, construction, rock drilling, structural parts, wear parts, and military components. Tungsten-steel alloys are used in the production of rocket engine nozzles, and superalloys containing tungsten are used in turbine blades and wear-resistant parts and coatings.[2] |
Full timeline
| Year | Event type | Details | Country/region |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1779 | Irish chemist Peter Woulfe examines a mineral from Sweden and realizes it contains a new type of metal.[3] | ||
| 1781 | "In 1781, Wilhelm Scheele continued the research on this new metal and isolated an acidic white oxide"[3] | ||
| 1783 | "Juan and Fausto Elhuyar get that honor. At the Seminary at Vergara in Spain, they researched this mysterious metal. In 1783 they isolated the metal oxide from wolframite and then, unlike the others, reduced it to tungsten metal by heating it with carbon." | Spain | |
| 1847 | Engineer Robert Oxland is granted a patent to prepare, form, and reduce tungsten to its metallic format.[1] | ||
| 1847 | Tungsten salts are used to make colored cotton and to make clothes used for theatrical and other purposes fireproof.[2] | ||
| 1855 | Attempts are made to create steel made of tungsten.[1][2] | Austria | |
| 1858 | Steels containing tungsten begin to be produced.[1] | ||
| 1895 | American inventor Thomas Edison finds that calcium tungstate is the substance with the best ability to fluoresce when exposed to X-rays.[2] | United States | |
| 1900 | A special mix of steel and tungsten is exhibited at the World Exhibition in Paris.[2] | France | |
| 1904 | The first light bulbs using tungsten are patented.[1] | ||
| 1908 | William D. Coolidge discovers that tungsten is an ideal filament material.[3] | ||
| 1909 | Team led by American engineer William D. Coolidge working at General Electric discover a process that creates ductile tungsten filaments through suitable heat treatment and mechanical working.[2] | United States | |
| 1911 | The Coolidge process is commercialized. In a short time, tungsten light bulbs would spread all over the world equipped with ductile tungsten wires.[2] | United States | |
| 1922 | Tungsten is placed on the first official Government list of strategic minerals in the United States.[4] | United States | |
| 1923 | A German electrical bulb company submits a patent for tungsten carbide, or hardmetal. The carbide is made by "cementing" very hard tungsten monocarbide (WC) grains in a binder matrix of tough cobalt metal by liquid phase sintering. The resulting material combines high strenght, toughness and high hardness.[2] | Germany | |
| 1977 | China is the biggest and most important tungsten ore concentrate supplier.[5] | China | |
| 1993 | The price of tungsten reaches historical minimum, as a result of the collapse of the communist world together with a sudden fall in the worldwide tungsten consumption.[5] | ||
| 1995 | Production | Two countries, China (69%), and the former Soviet Union (19%), account for over 80 percent of the world's production of tungsten.[6] | China, Ex-USSR |
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See also
External links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "The History and Uses of Tungsten". larsonjewelers.com. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 DESJARDINS, JEFF. "The History of Tungsten, the Strongest Natural Metal on Earth". visualcapitalist.com. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Facts About Tungsten". livescience.com. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
- ↑ Materials Survey: Tungsten. United States. Business and Defense Services Administration.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lassner, Erik; Schubert, Wolf-Dieter. Tungsten: Properties, Chemistry, Technology of the Element, Alloys, and Chemical Compounds.
- ↑ Werner, Antony B. T.; Sinclair, W. D.; Amey, Earle B. International Strategic Mineral Issues Summary Report--tungsten.
