The recognition of magnesium came in 1755, when the Scottish chemist Joseph Black, working at Edinburgh, showed that magnesia alba, a white powder obtained from the mineral magnesite and from salts in mineral waters, was different from lime. He had found a new alkaline earth, now known to be magnesium carbonate. The pure metal was first isolated in 1808 by the English chemist Humphry Davy, using electrolysis, and the French chemist Antoine Bussy prepared it in a coherent form in 1831. The name comes from Magnesia, a district in Thessaly, Greece, where such minerals were found. Magnesium is a light, strong metal that burns with an intense white flame, and it is used in alloys for aircraft and vehicles. It is also essential to living things, since it sits at the centre of the chlorophyll molecule.
Before and after
- 25 May 1754Founding of Columbia University
- from 28 May 1754 to 7 October 1763French and Indian War
- 23 August 1754Birth of Louis XVI of France
- 20 September 1754Birth of Paul I of Russia
- 1755Discovery of magnesium
- 12 January 1755Founding of Lomonosov Moscow State University
- 1 November 17551755 Lisbon earthquake
- 2 November 1755Birth of Marie Antoinette
- 17 November 1755Birth of Louis XVIII of France
More in Science & technology
- 1543De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
- 1637Descartes publishes La Geometrie: algebra meets geometry
- 21 June 1646Birth of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- 15 April 1707Birth of Leonhard Euler
- 20 March 1727Death of Isaac Newton
- 28 August 1749Birth of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The era
This moment belongs to the Early modern world (1500 CE to 1760 CE), voyages, printing and new ideas. You can also browse everything in the 18th century.