• Question: How was titanium found?

    Asked by jd1 to Claire, Liad, Ruth, Ryan, Mako on 13 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Ryan Cheale

      Ryan Cheale answered on 13 Jun 2015:


      It was found in some rock (like a lot of iron) over in cornwall! The metal gets extracted via the Kroll process 🙂

    • Photo: Tat Ming Mako Ng

      Tat Ming Mako Ng answered on 15 Jun 2015:


      It was first found by William Gregor from Cornwall in 1791 as a reddish, brown ash. William did some experiments with the ash and concluded that he had discovered a new metal, and named it manaccanite in honour of the parish of Mannacan in Cornwall.

      A few years later, in 1795, a German scientist Martin Klaproth discovered a red crystal in Hungary and named it titanium, after the Greek God of strength ‘Titan’. Martin later read William’s record and found that they both found the same stuff.

      Although William is the true discoverer, scientists prefer to call Martin’s titanium to William’s manaccanite.

Comments