The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-08-14

- discovery.
Del Rio was born in Madrid, November 10, 1854,
and graduated from the University OF Alcala de
Henares in 1880. On account of his extraordinary
aptitude in the natural sciences, and particularly
in chemistry, he was pensioned and sent by the
government to study in Germany, France, and Eng
land. He spent about twelve years in those coun-
tries, principally in the study of mineralogy and
mining, and was associated with the leading scien-
lists, among others Lavoisier. After his return to
Spain he was named, in 1894, by royal order as
one of the group of professors to establish the
Royal School of Mines in Mexico City. The royal
order named Del Rio as professor of chemistry,
but on his request this was changed to mineralogy.
The school was opened in April, 1895. In 1920 Del
Rio was sent as deputy to the Spanish Cortes,
where he championed the cause Of Mexican indie
pendence. He returned to Mexico in 1924, but in
1929 on the expulsion of the Spaniards he went to
the United States. He afterwards returned, and
died in the City of Mexico on May %, 1S49. The
district of Andres Del Rio, in the state of Chihua-
hua, where the city of Batopilas and the mines of
the same name are located, is called after the dis
tinguished scientist.
In 1901 Prof. Del Rio in examining some brown
lead ores from the mines of Zimapan, In what is
now the state of Hidalgo, believed that he had dis
covered a new element different from chromium
and uranium and this he named erithronium. 1t
was in reality what we now know as vanadium.
The discovery was a genuine one, and had the
matter rested there the name that Del Rio gave
the new element would have been its name now,
and he would have been the undfsputed discoverer
thereof. But unfortunately the Mexican professor
was a little too much under the glamour of the
French school, and SO when Collet Descostils pub
lished an article in which he stated that Del Rios
erithronium was nothing more than impure chro-
MUM Del Rio accepted the French professors
judgment and in the Anales de Ciencias Naturales
of Madrid in 1904 disavowed his former claim of
discovery and stated that the substance was a
lead chromate. Del Rio had been right and the
French school wrong, for the element does not
even belong in the chromium group. So the mat
ter rested until in 1880 the Swedish scientist, N.
G. Sefstroem, rediscovered the element among
the slags of the Taberg iron ores and named it
vanadium, which name it still bears. 1t is some
times stated that the name chosen by Sefstroem
was in honor of the Scandinavian goddess Vana-
dis. This is not strictly correct. In the Morse
mythology the gods were divided into two
stocks, Aesir and Vanir, OF Asa and Vana. Njoerd,
Frey and Freyja were of the stock Vanir, hence
Vanadis. The word may be taken as the sur
name of a number of gods and goddesses, al
though perhaps most often used in connection
with Freyja. the Morse Venus.
Neither Del Rio nor Sefstroem, nor later Ber-
zelius, obtained the pure element, although Ber-
zelius published what he thought to be it's atomic
weight, 1877 and the formlae for its oxides. The
English chemist, Sir Henry E. Roscoe, in 1868
demonstrated that Berzelius was incorrect; that
he and other prior investigators had dealt with
nitrides or oxides of the element; and that In
stead of belonging to the chromium group of
elements vanadium should be placed in the group
with arsenic and phosphorus.
Vanadium is a silver-white metal and readily
oxidized. 1t has an atomic weight of BIB, is
nonmagnetic, has a very high electrical resis-
tivity, and melts at about 1850 degrees G. 1t
is one of the most difficulty reduced and hardest
of the metallic elements. Fortunately for its use
in the arts, 1t is not necessary to reduce the
metal to its pure state. Such a reduction would
be too costly. It can be reduced, however, quite
easily as an alloy, particularly as an alloy of
iron, ferrovanadium. containing approximately
one part of vanadium and two parts of iron.
Again, fortunately, this alloy has a melting point
1900 degree C. to 1.340 degrees c., sufficiently low
to further alloy with molten steel, which would
ing point over 300 degrees c.. higher.
Vanadium is one of the most widely dissent
mated of all the elements, although commercially
available deposits are comparatively rare. It
is found In most of the rocks, in clays and shales.
and in the ashes of plants. In addition to Mex
leo, where 1t was first discovered, vanadium has
been found in Colorado, Utah, Oklahoma. Ne
vada, New Mexico, and other parts of the United
States; in Peru, Sweden, Australia, Spain, Eng
land, Turkestan, Chilli and Argentina.
The chief ores from which vanadium is or
may be derived are patronite. carnotite, roscoe
lite, vanadinte and asphaltite. Coal is a source
Of vanadium. Ash from the Rockvale Colorado
coal gave q per cent vanadium oxide. Coal
from the Mendoza district in Argentina contains
about five pounds of vanadic acid per ton. II is