Rhenium was discovered in 1925 by the German chemists Walter Noddack, Ida Tacke, who married him soon afterwards, and Otto Berg. Using X-ray spectroscopy to search for the missing elements numbers 43 and 75 in minerals such as columbite and platinum ores, they detected the characteristic lines of the new element. They named it rhenium after the Rhine, the Latin name of which is Rhenus. In 1928 they extracted a gram of the metal from many tonnes of molybdenite. Rhenium was the last stable element to be discovered, and it is one of the rarest in the Earth's crust. It has a very high melting point and is used in superalloys for jet-engine turbine blades and in catalysts for refining petrol.
Before and after
- 24 December 1924Birth of Atal Bihari Vajpayee
- 1925Rise of Art Deco
- 1925Establishment of Virunga National Park
- 1925Publication of The Trial
- 1925Discovery of rhenium
- 1925Quantum mechanics is formulated
- 14 January 1925Birth of Yukio Mishima
- 26 January 1925Birth of Paul Newman
- 17 February 1925Birth of Hal Holbrook
More in Science & technology
- 1916General relativity
- 2 November 1920KDKA begins the first commercial radio broadcasts
- 1931Big Bang theory proposed
- 1939Discovery of francium
- 1941Discovery of plutonium
- 18 December 1944Launch of Le Monde
The era
This moment belongs to the Modern era (1914 CE to 1945 CE), world wars and a changing world. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.