Tantalum

Abstract

THE application of electricity to chemical problems has again borne fruit in the isolation and preparation of tantalum. Dr. Werner von Bolton, of the firm of Siemens and Halske, published the results of his very interesting research upon the preparation of tantalum in the Zeitschrift für Elektrochemie (January 20). Although the existence of tantalum was pointed out by Hatchett in 1801, it does not appear up to the present to have been prepared in the pure condition. Moissan, indeed, in 1902 prepared the metal by reducing tantalic oxide (Ta₂O₅) in the electric furnace. But the metal was extremely hard and brittle, a property which Dr. Bolton now shows only belongs to the impure product; Moissan's metal probably contained some carbide. Dr. Bolton has succeeded in obtaining the metal by an electrical and by a chemical method.