English chemist · 1765–1847
Charles Hatchett
Charles Hatchett discovered niobium in 1801 in a mineral sample that had been sitting in the British Museum for decades.
How Niobium was found
The sample had been sent to Sir Hans Sloane from Connecticut and passed into the museum collection. Hatchett analysed it and found the oxide of a new metal. He named it columbium, after Columbia, a poetic name for America.
A year later Anders Gustaf Ekeberg discovered tantalum, and the two were long thought to be the same. Heinrich Rose showed in 1846 that they were distinct and named the second niobium, after Niobe, daughter of Tantalus. IUPAC adopted niobium in 1949, though American metallurgists used columbium for years afterwards.
Life and career
Born 1765 · Died 1847
Hatchett was born in London, the son of a successful coachbuilder. He did his chemistry in a private laboratory and later joined the family business.
He also studied the composition of bones, shells and lac, and he was a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Discovered in the same era
Other elements identified within ten years of 1801.