Vanadic Acid. 431 



VANADIC ACID. 



BY DE. PHIPSON, F.C.S.j LONDON, 



Late of the University of Bruxelles ; Member of the Chemical Society of 



Paris, etc., etc. 



It is now nearly sixty-three years since the observing world 

 began to get glimpses of the metal Vanadium. In 1801, the 

 mineralogist Del Rio, travelling in Mexico, met with a peculiar 

 mineral in the lead mine of Zimapan, and announced that he 

 had found in it a new metal, to which he proposed to give the 

 name of JErythronium. This mineral, which, let it be stated 

 immediately, was vanadate of lead (vanadinite), has been since 

 met with in Dumfriesshire, at Wanlockkead, where it occurs as 

 small globular masses, more or less crystalline, or as a thin 

 coating, on Calamine ; and also at Beresof, in the Urals, where 

 it accompanies the mineral Pyromorphite. The Mexican 

 specimens were reddish or yellow coloured, heavy, brittle, and 

 fusible. 



Del Eio analyzed this mineral, and assured himself that it 

 contained an element then completely unknown. He sent 

 specimens of it to Paris, where they were again analyzed by 

 Collet Descotils, who declared that the new metal Erythronium 

 was simply impure chrome, and, strange to relate, Del Rio 

 adopted this opinion, and looked upon the newly- discovered 

 mineral as a subchromate of lead. 



It was not until twenty-nine years later, that Sefstrom of 

 Stockholm discovered (1830) a new substance in Swedish iron, 

 obtained from the iron ore of Taberg, not very far from Jung- 

 koping. This substance proved to be a metal, to which he 

 gave the name of Vanadium (from Vanadis, a Scandinavian 

 divinity, nearly forgotten by the northern poets of the present 

 day). A little later, Professor Wohler, of Gottingen, on ex- 

 amining specimens of Del Rio's mineral from Zimapan, found 

 that it really contained, not chrome, but vanadium — that it 

 was, in fact, vanadate of lead, and that Del Rio's first opinion, 

 that it contained a new substance, was perfectly exact. 



Not only the Swedish iron contained vanadium, but the 

 iron slags or cinders, and the iron ore itself, were found to 

 contain small quantities of Vanadic acid (the oxide or rust of 

 the new metal) . Berzelius and Sefstrom were the first to in- 

 vestigate thoroughly the properties of this curiously discovered 

 substance. The metal is best extracted by passing a current 

 of ammonia over chloride of vanadium heated in a glass bulb. 

 It is a white metal, and, when polished, resembles silver. It 



