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] |
| 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.[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.[2] | ||
| 1781 | "In 1781, Wilhelm Scheele continued the research on this new metal and isolated an acidic white oxide"[2] | ||
| 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] | ||
| 1855 | Attempts are made to create steel made of tungsten.[1] | ||
| 1858 | Steels containing tungsten begin to be produced.[1] | ||
| 1904 | The first light bulbs using tungsten are patented.[1] | ||
| 1908 | William D. Coolidge discovers that tungsten is an ideal filament material.[2] |
Meta information on the timeline
How the timeline was built
The initial version of the timeline was written by FIXME.
Funding information for this timeline is available.
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