Tungsten General Electric's attempt to patent it, overturning granted in 1913 to William D. Coolidge. Tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with symbol W and atomic number 74. The name "tungsten" comes from the former Swedish name for the tungstate mineral "scheelite", "tung sten" or "heavy stone". Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively combined with other elements in chemical compounds rather than alone. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolated as a metal in 1783. Its important ores include wolframite and scheelite. The free element is remarkable for its
Melting-point depression during experiment. Melting point depression was predicted in 1909 by Pawlow. Takagi first observed melting point depression of several types of metal nanoparticles in 1954. A variable intensity electron beam from a transmission electron microscope melted metal nanoparticles in early experiments. Diffraction patterns changed from characteristic crystalline patterns to liquid patterns as the small particles melted, allowing Takagi to estimate the melting temperature from the electron beam energy. Nanoparticles have a much greater surface to volume ratio than bulk materials. The increased surface to volume ratio means surface atoms have a much greater effect on chemical and physical properties of