Tungsten (atomic number 74) was discovered by Scheele, with the assistance of his Spanish laboratory assistants, brothers J.J. and Don F. de Elhuyar, in 1783. The element was named after the mineral tungsten (now known as scheelite) which had been recognized since about 1758. The name tungsten derives from the Swedish tung (heavy) sten (stone). The element's symbol (W) comes from its German name wolfram, which is also the source of the Fe-Mn tungstate's name of wolframit (wolframite). Wolfram derives from wolf rahm in response to the wolfish manner in which the element devoured, or interfered with, the smelting of tin. Tungsten's predominant use is in metalworking, mining, and construction machinery and equipment, generally in the form of exceedingly hard tungsten carbides (WC and W2C) or high temperature W-bearing alloys. The use of tungsten as incandescent filaments (and in other electrical applications) constitutes its second greatest consumption. Ca and Mg tungstates are used in...
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Groen, J.C. (1998). Tungsten . In: Geochemistry. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4496-8_330
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