ABSTRACT
Unlike some of the other metals discussed in this book, vanadium does not have a long and glorious history replete with anecdotal stories about its influence on history or on entire civilizations. Vanadium was first discovered by Del Rio in 1801, who, in fact, thought he had only found an ore that resembled lead chromate and which he named erythronium. The element itself was ‘rediscovered’ and purified as multiple oxides from the smelting products of iron ores by Sefstrom in 1831; because of the mixture of beautifully colored oxides that were obtained, Sefstrom renamed the ‘element’ vanadin (vanadium) after the North German goddess of beauty, Vanadis. However, it was not until 1927 that vanadium in a pure (99.7 percent) ductile form was isolated by Marden and Rich (Faulkner-Hudson, 1964; Rehder, 1995).
