How it began
Juan José Elhuyar, born in 1754, and his brother Fausto, born in 1755, were both natives of Logroño who had studied mineralogy. They were in charge of the Laboratorium Chemicum of the Royal Basque Society of Friends of the Country, a learned society founded in 1764 with its seat at Azkoitia in Gipuzkoa. While analyzing the mineral wolframite there, they obtained a new metal on September 28, 1783, and named it volfram.
How it works
The brothers started from the mineral wolframite. According to Oxford Reference, they proved that the same acid is present in more than one mineral. Starting from wolframite, they then obtained the metal itself by reduction with carbon, that is, by heating the material with carbon. The Instituto Europa de los Pueblos dates the result to September 28, 1783, and Encyclopedia.com describes the brothers as the first to isolate the element.
What lasted
Tungsten proved useful because it withstands very high temperatures and resists corrosion. It went into very resistant alloys, vacuum and X-ray tubes, and the coils and heating elements of electric furnaces. Tungsten carbide became a cutting material for metals of all kinds on lathes and in mining, public works and oil drilling. The metal is also used in aerospace engines and rockets and as a chemical catalyst.
Where it stands today
The element is known in English as tungsten, while the brothers' name survives as wolfram in several languages. Present uses listed by the Instituto Europa de los Pueblos include mobile phones, circuit boards, dental instruments, the tips of ballpoint pens and parts for trains and aircraft, and the metal is a candidate material for future nuclear fusion reactors. Britannica and Oxford Reference both credit the Elhuyar brothers with its discovery in 1783.
