Barium hexaferrite (BaO•6Fe2O3) was discovered in 1950 at the Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium ("Philips Physics Laboratory"). The discovery was somewhat accidental—due to a mistake by an assistant who was supposed to be preparing a sample of hexagonal lanthanum ferrite for a team investigating its use as a semiconductor material. On discovering that it was actually a magnetic material, and confirming its structure by X-ray crystallography, they passed it on to the magnetic research group. Barium hexaferrite has both high coercivity (170 kA/m) and low raw material costs. It was developed as a product by Philips Industries (Netherlands) and from 1952 was marketed under the trade name "Ferroxdure". The low price and good performance led to a rapid increase in the use of permanent magnets.