The Question: This element was once described as "brown lead". Clumpy and Kloumpios know this element from their knowledge of a specific Norse Goddess. The chassis of the Model T caused the first large scale commercial demand for this element. Over 100,000 tons of this element are released into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels each year. This element was identified as the key element for understanding how Damascus steel blades were developed. What element is being described? The Answer: The element is Vanadium (V). Vanadium was discovered by Andrés Manuel del Río, a Spanish-Mexican mineralogist, in 1801. Del Río extracted the element from a sample of Mexican "brown lead" ore. Vanadium derives its name from the Old Norse word Vanadís (another name for the Norse Vanr goddess Freyja, whose attributes include beauty and fertility). The most common oxide of vanadium is used as a catalyst in manufacturing sulfuric acid. After years of researching how ancient Damascus steel blades were made, Dr. J. Verhoeven, Iowa State University, determined that 270 ppm of vanadium was the key element addition for the strength of the legendary blades. The winner of the quiz is Eray Canli, ANDAR Electromechanical Systems and will get the services of Clumpy and Kloumpios for the week. EQAB reviewed and deemed Wayne Showers response as "honorable mention of interest" for submitting erythronium. The IUPAC officially did not accept erythronium as the element name so therefore Wayne's answer can not be counted as correct. However, the naming history is quite interesting. Here is the element naming history as detailed in Wiki: Vanadium was discovered by Andrés Manuel del Río, a Spanish-Mexican mineralogist, in 1801. Del Río extracted the element from a sample of Mexican "brown lead" ore, later named vanadinite. He found that its salts exhibit a wide variety of colors, and as a result he named the element panchromium (Greek: παγχρώμιο "all colors"). Later, Del Río renamed the element erythronium (Greek: ερυθρός "red") because most of the salts turned red upon heating. In 1805, the French chemist Hippolyte Victor Collet-Descotils, backed by del Río's friend Baron Alexander von Humboldt, incorrectly declared that del Río's new element was only an impure sample of chromium. Del Río accepted Collet-Descotils' statement and retracted his claim. In 1831, the Swedish chemist Nils Gabriel Sefström rediscovered the element in a new oxide he found while working with iron ores. Later that same year, Friedrich Wöhler confirmed del Río's earlier work. Sefström chose a name beginning with V, which had not been assigned to any element yet. He called the element vanadium after Old Norse Vanadís (another name for the Norse Vanr goddess Freyja, whose attributes include beauty and fertility), because of the many beautifully colored chemical compounds it produces. In 1831, the geologist George William Featherstonhaugh suggested that vanadium should be renamed "rionium" after del Río, but this suggestion was not followed. I'll leave it to Doug to explain how Clumpy and Kloumpios relate to the element. 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 Week 65 Frank Kimmey, VeriFone Inc. Week 66 Jerry Dengler, Pergamon Corp Week 66 Leland Woodall Week 67 Eray Canli, ANDAR Electromechanical Systems Week 68 James Head - It appears that Clumpy and Kloumpios brought the rain with them after we've had several weeks of dry and hot weather. I've been keeping them busy all week with some Orcad layout work with a brief excursion to take my two year old daughter to Mini Professors to learn about friction whilst constructing a hover craft out of an old CD, balloon and the top of a washing up liquid bottle. I caught them trying to violate the second law of thermodynamics but managed to stop them in time before they could give Louise bad ideas. Week 69 Mordechai Kirshenbaum - but I don't want the brothers to travel so far away (they already had been in Israel several months ago)...so they get the week off! Week 70 Doug Pauls, Rockwell Collins - The boys will be glad to be home and see the wives and family for a long weekend. They can help me with an 86000 lines of data statistical analysis, but then they get the weekend off. Week 71 Eray Canli, ANDAR Electromechanical Systems - assisted with ???? I hope everyone has a awesome week! Dave Hillman Rockwell Collins [log in to unmask]