Chemical Elements

Eleven elements, their discoverers unknown, were named and used before 1669 by Europeans: gold, silver, iron, tin, copper, lead, mercury, arsenic, antimony, carbon and sulfur.   Platinum and copper were known to pre-Columbian Amerindians.   Zinc ore, but not the pure metal, was used since ancient times to alloy with copper to form brass.   Zinc metal was produced in the 13th century C.E. in India by reducing calamite with charcoal and may have been produced in Transylvania. ^{Lide 4-33}   Bismuth was known earlier only as a form of lead or tin.

The first known discoverer of an element was the German chemist, Hennig Brand, who discovered phosphorus in 1669.   Altogether, 29 elements were known before 1790, the base year for our study of contributions to American living standards, although many of these had no applications at that time.   Below is a list of 52 elements, listed by year of discovery, that have had important industrial and health applications since 1790, either in isolation, or as a part of higher order materials .   Included here are their corresponding chemical symbols, atomic number, and year of discovery.   The complete list of elements is given in any Periodic Table of Elements. ^{PBS n.p.}