Editing Tungsten (section)

==History==
In 1781, [[Carl Wilhelm Scheele]] discovered that a new [[acid]], [[tungstic acid]], could be made from [[scheelite]] (at the time called tungsten).<ref>Scheele, Carl Wilhelm (1781) [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433012786798;view=1up;seq=99 "Tungstens bestånds-delar"] (Tungsten's constituents), ''Kungliga Vetenskaps Academiens Nya Handlingar'' (Royal Scientific Academy's New Proceedings), '''2''' : 89–95 (in Swedish).</ref><ref>English translation on [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc1.cu61255840;view=1up;seq=12 pp. 4–13] of: de Luyart, John Joseph and Fausto, with Charles Cullen, trans., [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc1.cu61255840;view=1up;seq=7 ''A Chemical Analysis of Wolfram and Examination of a New Metal, Which Enters its Composition''] (London, England, G. Nicol, 1785).</ref> Scheele and [[Torbern Bergman]] suggested that it might be possible to obtain a new metal by reducing this acid.<ref name="SaundersN" /> In 1783, [[Juan José Elhuyar|José]] and [[Fausto Elhuyar]] found an acid made from [[wolframite]] that was identical to tungstic acid. Later that year, at the [[Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del País|Royal Basque Society]] in the town of [[Bergara]], Spain, the brothers succeeded in isolating tungsten by reduction of this acid with [[charcoal]], and they are credited with the discovery of the element (they called it "wolfram" or "volfram").<ref name="ITIAnews_0605">{{cite news|url=http://www.itia.info/FileLib/Newsletter_2005_06.pdf |title=ITIA Newsletter |date=June 2005 |publisher=International Tungsten Industry Association |access-date=2008-06-18 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721214335/http://www.itia.info/FileLib/Newsletter_2005_06.pdf |archive-date=July 21, 2011 }}</ref><ref name="ITIAnews_1205">{{cite news|url=http://www.itia.info/FileLib/Newsletter_2005_12.pdf |title=ITIA Newsletter |date=December 2005 |publisher=International Tungsten Industry Association |access-date=2008-06-18 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721214335/http://www.itia.info/FileLib/Newsletter_2005_12.pdf |archive-date=July 21, 2011 }}</ref><ref>de Luyart, J.J. and F. (September 1783) "Análisis químico del volfram, y examen de un nuevo metal, que entra en su composición" (Chemical analysis of wolframite, and examination of a new metal, which enters into its composition), ''Extractos de las Juntas Generales celebradas por la Real Sociedad Bascongada de los Amigos del País en la ciudad de Vitoria por setiembre de 1783'', pp. 46–88.</ref><ref>de Luyart, John Joseph and Fausto, with Charles Cullen, trans., [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc1.cu61255840;view=1up;seq=7 ''A Chemical Analysis of Wolfram and Examination of a New Metal, Which Enters its Composition''] (London, England, G. Nicol, 1785).</ref><ref>Caswell, Lyman R. and Stone Daley, Rebecca W. (1999) "The Delhuyar brothers, tungsten, and Spanish silver," ''Bulletin for the History of Chemistry'', '''23''' : 11–19. Available at: [http://www.scs.illinois.edu/~mainzv/HIST/bulletin_open_access/num23/num23%20p11-19.pdf University of Illinois (USA)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151230174818/http://www.scs.illinois.edu/~mainzv/HIST/bulletin_open_access/num23/num23%20p11-19.pdf |date=2015-12-30 }}</ref>

The strategic value of tungsten came to notice in the early 20th century. British authorities acted in 1912 to free the [[Carrock Fell|Carrock mine]] from the German owned Cumbrian Mining Company and, during [[World War I]], restrict German access elsewhere.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-25596167|title=Vital WW1 metal 'in enemy hands'|last=Watson|first=Greig|date=2014-06-06|work=BBC News|access-date=2018-02-10}}</ref> In [[World War II]], tungsten played a more significant role in [[Wolfram Crisis|background political dealings.]] Portugal, as the main European source of the element, was [[Portugal during World War II#Wolfram (Tungsten)|put under pressure from both sides]], because of its deposits of wolframite ore at [[Panasqueira]]. Tungsten's desirable properties such as resistance to high temperatures, its hardness and density, and its strengthening of alloys made it an important raw material for the arms industry,<ref name="portugal">{{cite journal|last=Stevens|first=Donald G.|date=1999|title=World War II Economic Warfare: The United States, Britain, and Portuguese Wolfram|journal=The Historian|volume=61|issue=3|page=539|doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.1999.tb01036.x}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | title=The Price of Neutrality: Portugal, the Wolfram Question, and World War II| author= Wheeler, L. Douglas| journal=Luso-Brazilian Review| volume= 23 | pages= 107–127|number= 1 |date=Summer 1986| jstor= 3513391}}</ref> both as a constituent of weapons and equipment and employed in production itself, e.g., in [[tungsten carbide]] cutting tools for machining steel.
Now tungsten is used in many more applications such as aircraft and motorsport ballast weights, darts, anti-vibration tooling, and sporting equipment.

Tungsten is unique amongst the elements in that it has been the subject of patent proceedings. In 1928, a US court rejected [[General Electric]]'s attempt to patent it, overturning {{US patent|1082933}} granted in 1913 to [[William D. Coolidge]].<ref>General Electric Co. v. De Forest Radio Co., 28 F.2d 641, 643 (3rd Cir. 1928)</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Guruswamy, Lakshman D.|author2=McNeely, Jeffrey A.|title=Protection of global biodiversity: converging strategies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FOJ5xJGCovYC&pg=PA333|date=1998|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-2188-0|pages=333–}}</ref><ref>{{cite court |litigants=General Electric Co. v. De Forest Radio Co. |vol=28 |reporter= F.2d |opinion=641 |court=3d Cir. |date=1928 |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/28/641/1502452/ |access-date=16 November 2018 }}</ref>
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It is suggested that remnants of wolfram have been found in what may have been the garden of the astronomer and alchemist [[Tycho Brahe]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Chemical analyses find hidden elements from renaissance astronomer Tycho Brahe's alchemy laboratory | website=Phys.org | date=24 July 2024 | url=https://phys.org/news/2024-07-chemical-analyses-hidden-elements-renaissance.html | access-date=2 March 2025}}</ref>

===Etymology===
The name ''tungsten'' (which means {{gloss|heavy stone}} in [[Swedish language|Swedish]] and was the old Swedish name for the mineral [[scheelite]] and other minerals of similar density) is used in English, French, and many other languages as the name of the element, but  ''wolfram'' (or ''volfram'') is used in most European (especially Germanic and Slavic) languages and is derived from the mineral [[wolframite]], which is the origin of the chemical symbol '''W'''.<ref name="albert" /> The name ''wolframite'' is derived from [[German language|German]] {{lang|de|wolf rahm}} ({{gloss|wolf soot, wolf cream}}), the name given to tungsten by [[Johan Gottschalk Wallerius]] in 1747. This, in turn, derives from [[Latin]] {{lang|la|lupi spuma}}, the name [[Georg Agricola]] used for the mineral in 1546, which translates into English as {{gloss|wolf's froth}} and is a reference to the large amounts of [[tin]] consumed by the mineral during its extraction, as though the mineral devoured it like a wolf.<ref name="sweetums" /> This naming follows a tradition of colorful names miners from the [[Ore Mountains]] would give various minerals, out of a superstition that certain ones that looked as if they contained then-known valuable metals but when extracted were somehow "hexed". [[Cobalt]] (cf. [[Kobold]]), [[pitchblende]] (cf. German {{lang|de|[[wikt:blenden|blenden]]}} for {{gloss|to blind, to deceive}}) and [[nickel]] (cf. "Old Nick") derive their names from the same miners' idiom.