History of Tungsten

Tungsten has a patchwork history, encompassing medieval German smelters and modern Chinese miners. The name tungsten is derived from the Swedish words "tung sten," meaning "heavy stone." Its chemical symbol, W, is derived from the German wolfram, the old name of the tungsten mineral wolframite. One theory behind the name wolfram was that it was named from wolf rahm (wolf froth): German smelters grumbled that the ore appeared to "devour" the tin when it was smelted. It was isolated in Spain in the 1700s by Fausto and Juan Jose de Elhuyar.

Tungsten is mined as an ore. Most of the world's reserves are in China, which supplies 85% of the world's demand. It's also found in Colorado, Russia, and Korea. Tungsten is mostly used in:

Hard metals “WC”
Lighting
Tungsten heavy alloys “WHA”

Some basic facts about tungsten are:

Its melting point—3,410°C—is the highest of any metal
Its density is 19.3 gms/cc