From Arsenic to Zirconium

OSMIUM, Os

RARE ’N’ FOUL ’N’ TINTED BLUE

“So rare ’n’ foul ’n’ tinted blue, the densest of them all,

Though hardest metal on the block, my range of use is small.

Sat bottom left in Pt’s fold,

I’ve tipped the nibs on pens of old.

For stains and ‘syns’ tetroxide wins . . . despite its blinding pall!”

“So rare ’n’ foul ’n’ tinted blue, the densest of them all,

GROUP 8 TRANSITION METAL

Osmium is the extremely rare¹⁷ and bluish-tinted transition metal located at the intersection of row 6 and group 8 on the periodic table. Osmium was first isolated in 1803 by the English chemist Smithson Tennant (1761–1815). Tennant, struck by the element’s rather ...