I have been reading an old book I picked up in a charity shop in Perth. It is titled “In Search of Minerals” and was published in 1880. Its interesting to note the uses for some minerals 132 years ago. In a chapter titled “Useful minerals of unimportant metals” Uranium’s main use was as an oxide for colouring glass and ceramics. (This book was written before the discovery of radioactivity in 1896). Salts of tungsten were used in dying. The only use for vanadium was in making a type of ink. Cadmium was believed to be suitable as an amalgam for filling teeth. Tantalum, Niobium and Yttrium were considered to have no use except as ”an interest to chemists”. The author also mentions that the manufacture of artificial diamonds had just been achieved but noted that they would never be able to compete on quality or price with natural diamonds. A lot has changed since then and who knows what new uses for metals will be around in another 132 years.
