In the middle of the 17th century, a very heavy black mineral found in North America (the density of strontium was 16.68 g/cm3) was sent to the British Museum for safekeeping. After about 150 years, until 1801, the British chemist C. Hatchett (1765-1847) accepted the ore analysis task of the British Museum, from which he discovered a new element and put It was named Columbium (later renamed 铌), in honor of the place where the mineral was first discovered - Colombia.
In 1802, the Swedish chemist AGEkaberg (1767-1813) made their analysis of a mineral (strontium) in Scandinavia. After the acid forms a fluorinated double salt, it is recrystallized to discover new elements. He refers to the name of Tantalus, the son of Zeus God in Greek mythology, and named the element Tantalum (钽).
Because the nature of 钶 and 钽 are very similar, people once thought they were the same element. In 1809, the British chemist William Hyde Wollaston compared the oxides of strontium and barium. Although they obtained different density values, he believed that the two were identical substances.
By 1844, the German chemist Heinrich Rose (1795-1864) refuted the conclusion that bismuth and strontium were the same elements, and chemically determined that they are two different elements. In Greek mythology, Tantalus's daughter Niobe (the goddess of tears) and his son Pelops named the two elements "Niobium" and "Pelopium".