Discovery of manganese

Manganese was isolated in 1774 by the Swedish chemist Johan Gottlieb Gahn, who reduced the mineral pyrolusite with carbon. His work followed the discovery by his friend Carl Wilhelm Scheele that pyrolusite contained a previously unknown element. Pyrolusite, the black manganese dioxide, was already familiar: glassmakers used it to remove the green tint from glass, and prehistoric artists used it as a black pigment in cave paintings. The name derives from magnesia nigra, black magnesia, as the mineral was called. The metal is brittle and not very useful by itself, but in 1882 Robert Hadfield showed that adding it to steel produced a very hard, tough alloy. Most manganese today goes into steel production, and it is also essential in living organisms.

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