Atomic number 74
Atomic mass 183.85
Density, kg / m? 19300
Temperature
melting, ° С 3410
Tungsten is a hard shiny silver-gray transition metal. In 1781, the famous Swedish chemist Scheele, treating the scheelite mineral with nitric acid, obtained a yellow “heavy stone” (tungsten trioxide). In 1783, the Spanish chemists Eluard brothers reported on obtaining from the Saxon mineral wolframite both a yellow oxide of a new metal soluble in ammonia, and the metal itself. The refractoriness and plasticity of tungsten make it indispensable for filaments in lighting fixtures, as well as in picture tubes and other vacuum tubes.