Discovery of niobium

Niobium was discovered in 1801 by the English chemist Charles Hatchett, who analysed a black mineral sent to the British Museum from Massachusetts in the United States. He found that it contained a new metal and called it columbium, after Columbia, a poetic name for America. For decades it was confused with tantalum, a very similar element, until the German chemist Heinrich Rose showed in 1844 that two elements were involved and renamed one niobium after Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus in Greek mythology. The two names competed for over a century, and in 1950 the international chemical authorities settled on niobium. Alloys of niobium are used in superconducting magnets, such as those in medical MRI scanners and particle accelerators, and in high-strength steels for pipelines.

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