Heinrich Rose was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 mineralogist

Mineralogy

Mineralogy is the study of chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization.-History:Early writing...

 and analytical chemist

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

. He was the brother of the mineralogist Gustav Rose

Gustav Rose

Gustav Rose was a German mineralogist who was a native of Berlin. He was a brother of mineralogist Heinrich Rose , the son of pharmacologist Valentin Rose , and the father of noted surgeon Edmund Rose and the classicist Valentin Rose.He was a graduate of the University of Berlin, where he was a...

 and a son of Valentin Rose

Valentin Rose (pharmacologist)

Valentin Rose was a German pharmacologist from Berlin, Margraviate of Brandenburg. Son of Valentin Rose the Elder.He found the inuline and sodium carbonate. And he invented a way to detect arsenic.-Children:...

.

Heinrich Rose was professor at the University of Berlin from 1823. In 1846 he rediscovered the chemical element

Chemical element

A chemical element is a pure chemical substance consisting of one type of atom distinguished by its atomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. Familiar examples of elements include carbon, oxygen, aluminum, iron, copper, gold, mercury, and lead.As of November 2011, 118 elements...

 niobium

Niobium

Niobium or columbium , is a chemical element with the symbol Nb and atomic number 41. It's a soft, grey, ductile transition metal, which is often found in the pyrochlore mineral, the main commercial source for niobium, and columbite...

, proving conclusively that it was different from tantalum

Tantalum

Tantalum is a chemical element with the symbol Ta and atomic number 73. Previously known as tantalium, the name comes from Tantalus, a character in Greek mythology. Tantalum is a rare, hard, blue-gray, lustrous transition metal that is highly corrosion resistant. It is part of the refractory...

. This confirmed that Charles Hatchett

Charles Hatchett

Charles Hatchett FRS was an English chemist who discovered the element niobium.- Biography:Hatchett was born, raised, and lived in London...

 had discovered niobium in 1801 in columbite

Columbite

Columbite, also called niobite, niobite-tantalite and columbate [2O6], is a black mineral group that is an ore of niobium and tantalum. It has a submetallic luster and a high density and is a niobate of iron and manganese, containing tantalate of iron. This mineral group was first found in Haddam,...

 ore. Hatchett had named the new element "columbium", from the ore in which niobium and tantalium coexist. The element was eventually assigned the name niobium by the IUPAC in 1950 after Niobe

Niobe

Niobe was a daughter of Tantalus and of either Dione, the most frequently cited, or of Eurythemista or Euryanassa, and she was the sister of Pelops and Broteas, all of whom figure in Greek mythology....

, the daughter of Tantalus

Tantalus

Tantalus was the ruler of an ancient western Anatolian city called either after his name, as "Tantalís", "the city of Tantalus", or as "Sipylus", in reference to Mount Sipylus, at the foot of which his city was located and whose ruins were reported to be still visible in the beginning of the...

 in Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

. In 1845 Rose published the discovery of a new element pelopium

Pelopium

Pelopium was the proposed name for a new element found by the chemist Heinrich Rose in 1845. The name derived from the Greek king and later god Pelops. During the analysis of the mineral tantalite he concluded that it does contain an element similar to niobium and tantalum...

, which he had found in the mineral tantalite

Tantalite

Tantalite, [2O6], is a mineral group that is close to columbite. The two are often grouped together as a semi-singular mineral called coltan or "columbite-tantalite" in many mineral guides. However, tantalite has a much greater specific gravity than columbite...

. After subsequent research pelopium was identified to be a mixture of tantalum and niobium.

In 1830, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...

.

External links

• Publication list of Heinrich Rose