Invention Timeline - Georg Agricola, German Mineralogist; Discovered Bismuth in 1530
b. March 24, 1490 and d. November 1, 1555
German mineralogist. He became well versed in metallurgy and the art of mining. He discovered bismuth in 1530. Cuvier said, “He was to mineralogy what Gesner was to zoölogy.” His prncipal works are: “Concerning Ores” (1546) and “On the Origin and Causes of Subterranean Things.”
How nitrous Gas, from iron ingots driven,
Drinks with red lips the purest breath of heaven;
How, white Conferva, from its tender hair,
Gives in bright bubbles empyrean air,
The crystal floods phlogistic ores calcine,
And the pure ether marries with the Mine.
—Botanic Garden: Dr. Darwin
1612—Simon Sturtevant obtained a patent for smelting iron with bituminous coal.
1751 or 1754—Axil Frederick Cronstadt discovered nickel.
1783—Henry Cort patented the process of puddling.
1787, September 5-1852, December 10—Francois Sulpice Beudant lived. In 1818 he studied the minerals of Hungary. He published “Researches on the Causes which Determine Variations of Crystalline Forms of the same Mineral Substance” (1818) and an “Elementary Treatise on Mineralogy” (2d ed., 1831).
1829—Neilson introduced hot-blast in blast furnace.
1830—Nils Gabriel Sefstrom discovered the metal Vanadium.
1891, February 8—Tin ore was found in Mexico.
