Elementymology & Elements Multidict

memory peg	Very lustrous bluish-white metal which can take a very high polish melting point 1857 °C; 3375 °F boiling point 2672 °C; 4842 °F density 7.18-7.20 g/cc; 448.23-449.48 pounds/cubic foot
1797 Nicolas-Louis Vauquelin, France
χρωμα (chrōma) = colour (Greek)

In 1761, Johann Gottlob Lehmann (1719-1767) visited the Beresov Mines on the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains where he obtained samples of an orange-red mineral which he termed Siberian red lead. Returned to St. Petersburg in 1766, he analysed this mineral and discovered that it contained lead "mineralised with a selenitic spar and iron particles." In fact, the mineral was crocoite, a lead chromate (PbCrO₄). He described the mineral in a letter to the naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon (1707-1788), but died the next year when a retort containing arsenic burst upon heating.

In 1797 Nicolas-Louis Vauquelin (1763-1829), noting its beauty, scarcity, value equal to gold, and several contradictory chemical analyses, determined to find the correct composition of crocoite. He boiled pulverized crocoite with two parts potash obtaining a yellow solution. The solution formed a beautiful red precipitate with a mercury salt, and a yellow precipitate with lead. Adding tin muratic turned the solution green. In 1798 he precipitated lead with muratic acid, dried the green solid, then cooked it for half an hour in a charcoal crucible with charcoal dust. Upon cooling he discovered a network or gray, metallic needles weighing one third of the original.

Following the advice of Antoine-François comte de Fourcroy (1755-1809) and Abbé René-Just Haüy (1743-1822) Vauquelin named the new element Chromium, because of the many colours of its compounds. The name derives from the Greek χρωμα [chrōma] = colour.

• In the 19th century a native Czech name was proposed: barvík, from "barva" = colour.

• Mary Elvira Weeks, Discovery of the Elements, comp. rev. by Henry M. Leicester (Easton, Pa.: Journal of Chemical Education, 1968), pp. 271-281.

Information:

• International Chromium Development Association.