Berlin, Germany/berlin098
Previous | Home | NextSeñor del Río of Mexico City had analyzed a mineral from the silver-lead mines of Zimapán, Mexico, in which he claimed to have discovered a new element which he named "erythronium." Humboldt took the sample back to Europe, where Descotils of Paris misidentified it as simply a chromium mineral (Vauquelin had just discovered chromium in the "Red Lead of Siberia," and thus it was "natural" for the French chemists to recognize this new "French" discovery in "foreign" samples). Sefström in Falun, Sweden, thirty years after the del Río work identified vanadium in an iron ore from Taberg, Sweden. The error of the misidentification of del Río's vanadinite was soon recognized -- but too late to obviate the name "vanadium" given to the new element by Sefström. Wöhler, then in Berlin, had analyzed the sample after Descotils and had not recognized the misidentification, much to his later chagrin -- "I was a jackass to have missed it!" he rued. Berzelius consoled him, "Discovering that urea can be produced from inorganic material is worth the discovery of many elements."
