From Arsenic to Zirconium

VANADIUM, V

DAMASCUS STEEL

Metallic V, discovered twice, the hard in “hard as steel,”

For DIY tools, armored plate (and helmets!) it’s ideal.

Damascus steel’s sharp edge was famed,

And Henry’s Model-T it framed.

A catalyst; an impure source of em’ralds’ green appeal.

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Metallic V, discovered twice, the hard in “hard as steel,”

GROUP 5 TRANSITION METAL

Vanadium was discovered by two different scientists 30 years apart. In 1801, Mexican mineralogist Professor Andrés Manuel del Río (1764–1849) found it in a sample of a lead-based mineral known today as vanadinite, (Pb₅(VO₄)₃Cl). But subsequent chemical analysis at the French Institute in Paris ...