The Question:
This element suffered from a naming controversy for nearly 150 years (1801
-1950) due to the ores from which the element discoverers used to isolate
and extract pure samples. The folks at Bell Labs found that this element,
combine with tin, exhibited superconductivity in the presence of strong
electric currents and magnetic fields making it the first material to
support the high currents and fields necessary for useful high-power
magnets. The majority of the world's reserves of this element are found in
Brazil. The overwhelming commercial use of this element is in high grade
steel and super alloys. A structural alloy using this element was in the
advanced air frame systems for the Gemini program and used for the nozzle
of the Apollo Service Module. What element is being described?
The Answer:
The element is Niobium (Nb)! Columbium was the element name originally
bestowed by Hatchett upon his discovery of the metal in 1801. The name
reflected that the type specimen of the ore came from America
(Columbia). German
chemist Heinrich Rose, who argued that there were two different elements in
a tantalite sample, and named them after children of Tantalus: niobium
(from Niobe) and pelopium (from Pelops). Columbium remained in use in
American journals—the last paper published by American Chemical Society
with columbium in its title dates from 1953—while niobium was used in
Europe. To end this confusion, the name niobium was chosen for element 41
at the 15th Conference of the Union of Chemistry in Amsterdam in 1949. A
year later this name was officially adopted by the International Union of
Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) after 100 years of controversy, despite
the chronological precedence of the name columbium. The super alloy Inconel
718, consisting of roughly 50% nickel, 18.6% chromium, 18.5% iron, 5%
niobium, 3.1% molybdenum, 0.9% titanium, and 0.4% aluminium was used in
advanced air frame systems for the Gemini program. Another niobium alloy
was used for the nozzle of the Apollo Service Module.
I was able to observed this naming controversy first hand during my
undergraduate work as my professors at Iowa State University were very
adamant about using the name "Columbium" instead of Niobium. My question to
our European Technet members - did your university professors have the
opposite bias? Any stories?
The winner of the quiz is Leland Woodall and Jerry Dengler, Pergamon Corp
- they will split the services of Clumpy and Kloumpios for the week. Leland
and Jerry both submitted correct answer at the same time per the firewall
time stamp. Doug is on vacation so no half fractional elements for a couple
of weeks.
So far Clumpy and Kloumpios have done the following:
Past Quiz winners/tasks:
Week 1 Ravinder Ajmani, Western Digital
Week 1 Ron Feyereisen, SigmaTron Intl.
Week 2 Louis Hart, Compunetics
Week 3 Mark Kostinovsky, Schlumberger Ltd.
Week 3 John Burke
Week 4 Drew Meyer, Benchmark Electronics
Week 5 No Winner - no correct responses!
Week 6 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 7 Keith Calhoun, Sopark Corp
Week 7 Ian Fox, Rolls Royce
Week 8 Leland Woodall
Week 8 David Bealer, SMT
Week 9 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 10 Louis Hart, Compunetics
Week 11 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 11 Scott Decker, UTAS
Week 12 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 13 No Quiz,
Week 14 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 15 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 16 John Maxwell
Week 17 Leland Woodall
Week 18 Leland Woodall
Week 19 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 20 Robert Kondner
Week 21 Tom Brendlinger, ClearMotion Inc.
Week 22 Carl Van Wormer, Cipher Engineering LCC
Week 23 Juliano Ribeiro, DATACOM
Week 24 Gerry Gagnon, FLIR Commercial Systems
Week 25 Graham Collins, Sunsel Systems
Week 26 Joyce Koo, IPC International
Week 26 Todd MacFadden, Bose
Week 27 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 28 Leland Woodall
Week 29 Mordechai Kirshenbaum
Week 30 Leland Woodall
Week 31 Leland Woodall
Week 32 Steve Gregory
Week 33 Leland Woodall
Week 34 Jerry Dengler, Pergamon Corp
Week 35 Frank Kimmey, VeriFone Inc
Week 36 Graham Collins, Sunsel Systems
Week 37 Richard "Dean" Stadem
Week 38 Leland Woodall
Week 38 Tom Carroll
Week 39 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 40 Leland Woodall
Week 41 Tom Carroll
Week 42 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 43 Joyce Koo
Week 44 Russell Kido, Practical Components
Week 45 Leland Woodall
Week 45 Frank Kimmey, VeriFone Inc
Week 46 Ian Fox, Rolls-Royce Control Systems
Week 47 Fred Cox, Bluering Stencils
Week 48 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 49 Todd MacFadden, Bose
Week 49 Leland Woodall
Week 50 Russell Kido, Practical Components
Week 51 Ravinder Ajmani, Western Digital
Week 52 Leland Woodall
Week 53 Scott Decker, UTAS
Week 54 Leland Woodall
Week 55 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 56 Mordechai Kirshenbaum
Week 57 Steve Herring, Pennatronics Corp
Week 58 Leland Woodall
Week 59 Drew Meyer, Benchmark
Week 60 Leland Woodall
Week 61 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 62 Leland Woodall!
Week 63 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 63 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 63 Tom Granat
Week 64 George Wenger
- I couldn't have won at a better time. I recently purchased a 5 acre lot
and I need to remove lots of trees, stumps and sticker bushes so my builder
can build a new 3 bedroom ranch home. Approximately 10 weeks ago I
herniated a disk in my back and I haven't been able to do a lot of work on
our lot so I have plenty of work for Clumpy and Kloumpios to do this week.
Week 65 Frank Kimmey, VeriFone Inc
- Since the boys are probably tired from all the work George made them do,
they can join me for the week at Sunset Beach on the Monterrey Bay. Pure
relaxation on vacation. Maybe they can convince the local raccoons to stay
out of my camp. We’ll have some great games of Cards Against Humanity with
them.
Week 66 Jerry Dengler, Pergamon Corp
- assisted with ????
Week 66 Leland Woodall
- assisted with ????
I hope everyone has a awesome week!
Dave Hillman
Rockwell Collins
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