Niobium has an interesting account of discovery. John Winthrop, an American, located a piece of mineral called columbite in Massachusetts in 1734, and sent it to England for examination. The mineral was analyzed in 1801 by Charles Hatchett, an English chemist. He discovered a new element in the mineral and named it columbium after Columbia, a historical, poetic name that refers to the United States of America.
William Hyde Wollaston, an English chemist, compared columbite with another mineral, tantalite, and declared that columbium was in fact the element called tantalum. In 1844, Heinrich Rose, a German chemist, working with samples of columbite and tantalite, produced two new separate, but very similar, acids, which he named niobic acid and pelopic acid. Later, he recognized niobium as a distinct element.
The element is named after Niobe, the daughter of king Tantalus of Greek Mythology. It is shiny-white in colour, and is a soft element. Niobium alloys are used in the production of highly-specialized steel that is used in the manufacture of stronger gas pipelines. Niobium alloys are also used in rocket and jet engines due to their superior strength at extremely high temperatures.
It has the atomic number 41, and it is represented as Nb.
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