the name means:
Niobium is named after Niobe, the daughter
of Tantalos, from Greek mythology.
story about the identification of Niobium
starts in 1753 when a colonist in New
England sent a sample of a mineral, called
columbite, back to England. This sample was
locked away in the British Museum for
almost fifty years. Then, in 1801, Charles
Hatchett analysed the mineral sample and
found it to contain a new element that he
named columbium. The names columbite and
columbium were derived from Columbus
(Christopher), the man who discovered
One year later, in 1802, a Finnish chemist
called Anders Gustaf Ekeberg identified a
new element in a local mineral. He called
this new element tantalum. However, seven
years later, William Hyde Wollaston
announced that columbium and tantalum were,
in fact, the same element. This conclusion
was accepted for the next forty two years.
Wollastonís conclusion was proved incorrect
by Heinrich Rose in 1846. He showed that
there were two different elements involved.
He kept Ekebergís name tantalum, but called
the other element niobium since, in Greek
mythology, Niobe was Tantalosís daughter.
were now two names for the same element. In
Europe element # 41 was known as niobium
and in the USA it was known as columbium (Cb).
This situation was resolved in 1950 when
the International Union of Pure and Applied
Chemistry (IUPAC) adopted niobium.
However, even to this day, the name
columbium is still sometimes used in the
is a silver-like metal that is resistant to
corrosion. It ca be added in small amount
to stainless steel to strengthen it.