Group 12 element have zinc in its active site. In 1817, cadmium was discovered in Germany as an impurity in zinc carbonate minerals (calamine) by Friedrich Stromeyer and Karl Samuel Leberecht Hermann. It was named after the Latin "cadmia" for "calamine", a cadmium-bearing mixture of minerals, which was in turn named after the Greek mythological character, Κάδμος Cadmus, the founder of Thebes. Stromeyer eventually isolated cadmium metal by roasting and reduction of the sulfide. In 1927, the International Conference on Weights and Measures redefined the meter in terms of a red cadmium spectral line (1 m = 1,553,164.13 wavelengths). This definition has since
Metallic fiber also produces metallic yarns; the city Dongyang contains more than 100 factories, though some of these are home based production sites rather than conventional factories. Two of the more popular factories are Salu Metallic Yarn and Aoqi Textile. The most popular company in Europe is the company Wagner-Tech-Textile GmbH with the brand name Rexess, this company is probably the last company which is able to produce metallic yarn in EU. They have still machinery for production of supported and unsupported metallic yarn. The Lurex Company has manufactured metallic fibers in Europe for over fifty years. They produce a wide variety