Chemistry and mineral analysis · 1761–1815
Smithson Tennant
Tennant was a Cambridge chemist whose small published output is mostly demonstrations that a substance is, or is not, what it was assumed to be. He burned diamond and graphite and showed that both yield only carbon dioxide, establishing that diamond is a form of carbon; he analyzed magnesian limestone in a way that mattered for agriculture. In 1800 he entered a partnership with Wollaston to buy and process crude platinum, and the two divided the analytical work between them.
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Contribution & context
The black powder left after crude platinum is treated with aqua regia had been dismissed as graphite. Tennant showed in 1803–1804 that it contained two new metals, which he named iridium, for the varied colors of its salts, and osmium, for the sharp smell of its volatile .
RSC Periodic Table — Iridiumbipm.org — Iridiumbipm.org — IridiumLANL Periodic Table — IridiumLANL Periodic Table — Iridium
Discoveries in context
Four metals found in a residue ↗
Dissolving crude platinum left an insoluble residue that most analysts discarded. Two who examined it instead found four new elements in it.
Sources & further reading
- RSC Periodic Table — Iridium ↗Royal Society of ChemistryReference explanation · Source checked
- bipm.org — Iridium ↗bipm.orgReference explanation · Source checked
- bipm.org — Iridium ↗bipm.orgReference explanation · Source checked
- LANL Periodic Table — Iridium ↗Los Alamos National LaboratoryReference explanation · Source checked
- LANL Periodic Table — Iridium ↗Los Alamos National LaboratoryReference explanation · Source checked
Sources and further reading. What the review labels mean