For this project we had the option to either write an article that could possibly be featured in SciJourner science journal or write a letter to a company with an idea of a product or a way to make an existing one more efficient or environmentally safer. I chose to write an article about turngsten adn how it changed history.
Grayson Mooney
Period 5
11/28/12
Tungsten History
Tungsten was first discovered in its impure form in the 1500s in tin mines throughout Prussia and Sweden. The miners who discovered it remained uncredited in history, although their reactions to it are quite well preserved. Tungsten in its impure form had a tendency to reduce the amount of tin present around it when it was being smelted down, which made for some unhappy miners once they discovered what was causing it.
The miners nicknamed the pesky mineral wolfram, noting that it devoured tin with the same ravenousness that a wolf devours a sheep. The first official mention of wolfram came from the naturalist Georgius Agricola in his tome, “De Natura Fossilium”, which was published in 1546. [1]
However, despite its discovered status tungsten remained relatively unused, only being put to use in paints and coloring as a filler. And although attempts to smelt it were performed, its extremely high melting point of 6,170 °F made it impossible to smelt, at least with 16th century technology. The reason for tungsten’s almost impossibly high melting point is its dense crystalline structure, which is very very difficult to break apart into a liquid and will only do so at extreme temperatures, far beyond what blacksmiths and smelters were able to reach in the 1500s.
But even though it was an essentially unusable element, some interest in tungsten continued and in 1750 the mineralogist Axel Frederik Cronstedt gave the mineral its name, tungsten, which was derived from the Swedish words tung, which means heavy, and sten, which means stone. Note that emphasis was placed into pointing out tungsten’s density, one of the factors that helps both its strength and its high melting point.
And although a renewed interest in tungsten lead to several experiments that showed tungsten to be similar to iron and manganese, few practical uses were found for it until 1848, when British engineers discovered that when smelted, tungsten hardened extremely quickly compared to other metals of the day, which required quite a bit of time to harden sufficiently before they could be used for building or railroads, which were the most popular uses of metals back then. What aided tungsten in this respect was the very same component that made it incredibly strong: its density. Tungsten as a metal is incredibly dense and one of the few metals that is too dense to float on top of mercury, which is a remarkably buoyant element in its own respect.
But in any case, this discovery prompted a sudden boom in the use of tungsten, mostly within Europe as tungsten infused steels became the norm for building structures with metal skeletons. [2] Soon other tungsten related inventions were being displayed across the globe and a revolutionary tungsten filament lightbulb was displayed at the World Fair in Paris in 1900. This revolutionized artificial lighting and even today, with the exception of fluorescent lighting, every light you see has made use of a tungsten filament. [3]
Cemented carbides also became widely popular when infused with tungsten and when the Second World War began to rage in Europe, tungsten was one of the many mineral resources that the Allies and Axis forces began to vie to secure so that they would have a steady supply of it once the war came to an end.
However, most of the Northern European tungsten fields fell into Soviet hands at the end of the war and Allied governments instead went to Portugal, which produced a good deal of tungsten, securing exclusive trade deals with them.
As the Cold War went on, more and more uses for tungsten were discovered, mostly in the field of weaponry, especially in armor piercing rounds. Tungsten, with its exceptionally hard crystalline structure proved excellent for punching through enemy armor, so excellent in fact that tungsten is still one of the primary elements in armor piercing rounds, along with depleted uranium. [4] This military buildup did not cease even after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and research on tungsten infused armors and munitions has continued to this day.
But not all of the recent uses of tungsten have been military related, tungsten has played a significant role in flat screen televisions and even the very latest iProducts that the people of the developed nations seem to love so very much. Tungsten is also largely used for the uses that it was originally used, building and lighting. Tungsten filaments are still prevalent in most filament operated lighting and tungsten infused metals are almost always used for major building projects, such as skyscrapers and even the famous St. Louis Arch. And of course tungsten has only been around in its current form for a grand total of one hundred-forty five years, who even knows what will happen in the next two centuries.
WORKS CITED
[1] "History of Tungsten." ITIA. N.p., 2011. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.itia.info/history.html>.
[2] "Tungsten Carbide." Wikipedia.en. N.p., 19 Nov. 2008. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungsten_carbide>.
[3] "The History of the Light Bulb." invsee.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://invsee.asu.edu/modules/lightbulb/meathist4.htm>.
[4] Domeanu, Lucian. "How Do Armor Piercing Bullets Work?." Softpedia.com. N.p., 1
NUCLEAR DEBATE
For this project we were divided into several groups and assigned a power source, either nuclear, natural gas, or coal. I was put into the nuclear group and after this we had to write a Joint Scientific Statement addressing a number of questions on nuclear power. The Joint Scientific Statement can be read here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j62S-NQ-44p08f9Ue_EHjR5wT8xQSKMXHq4Yz6NUNRE/edit
After this we then prepared for a debate on whether or not nuclear power should be used in the United States. This debate can be watched here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXbdWkwWvAI&list=WLylIJWh_fkhBNKp4ANNcJNagZHwYjbjmt&feature=mh_lolz
NUCLEAR DEBATE
For this project we were divided into several groups and assigned a power source, either nuclear, natural gas, or coal. I was put into the nuclear group and after this we had to write a Joint Scientific Statement addressing a number of questions on nuclear power. The Joint Scientific Statement can be read here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j62S-NQ-44p08f9Ue_EHjR5wT8xQSKMXHq4Yz6NUNRE/edit
After this we then prepared for a debate on whether or not nuclear power should be used in the United States. This debate can be watched here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXbdWkwWvAI&list=WLylIJWh_fkhBNKp4ANNcJNagZHwYjbjmt&feature=mh_lolz
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