Term: manganese
Literally
meaning: “pertaining
to magnitis”
Origin: Anc Greek
The name
derived from Greek toponym (a prefecture in modern Greece) Magnesia as
Manganese and Magnesium were abundant in ores in this region (Magnitis lithos, Μαγνήτις λιθος). The
name Μαγνησια (Magnesia) derives from the name of the first
settlers in the region, the "Magnetes" from the Macedonian tribe name Magnetes (Μαγνήτες).
Coined/History
About 17000
years ago, in stone age (paleolithic), human used manganese dioxide as apigment for the cave
paintings.
In ancient Greece it
was though that in ore “Magnetes lithos” there were two mineral forms with different
gender. The feminine ore was later called magnesia or pyrolusite and the male one was called magnenite. In the 16th cen pyrolusite called
magnesis negra (black ore) by
glassemakers in order to distinguish it from magnesia alba (also from
Magnesia). The name magnesia eventually
was then used to refer only to the white magnesia which gave the name to the
element that isolated it.
Swedish-German chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele
(1742-1786) had used pyrolusite (manganese
dioxide) and he noted that it contained a new element but he could not able
to isolate it. Swedish minerologist Johann Goottlieb Gahn (1745-1818) was the
first who isolated magnanese in 1774 by reducing its dioxide with Carbo.
Definition
Manganese is a gray-white chemical
element with atomic number 25 and atomic mass
54.938045. It is occurring in
several allotropic forms found worldwide especially in the ore pyrolusite and in
nodules on the ocean floor. It is used mainly to increase strength in steel.
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