Who Discovered Magnesium?

Magnesium is a hard, silvery white alkaline earth metal that constitutes about 2% by mass of the Earth's crust, thereby forming the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust. However, magnesium cannot be found free in nature. The rocks in the Earth's crust contain the maximum amount of magnesium in nature. It is found in large deposits of magnesite, dolomite, minerals and even mineral waters. Today, most magnesium is obtained from seawater, however, it can also be extracted from minerals like dolomite (CaCO3.MgCO3) and carnallite (Kcl.MgCl2.6H2O). It is also found in the human body and is the eleventh most abundant element in our body.

Nuts, spinach, seeds and some whole grains are also good magnesium sources. Magnesium is a metal popularly used in the manufacture of firecrackers, alloys, bombs, flash photography, etc.

Who Discovered the Element Magnesium?

Three people are to be credited for bringing about three major breakthroughs in the field of magnesium discovery. Let's have a look at what each one's contribution was!

Joseph Black: In 1755, Joseph Black of Scotland carried out a number of quantitative experiments and found that magnesia alba (magnesium carbonate), a mild alkali happened to lose weight on heating. He found that magnesia (MgO) was a compound of magnesium and also that magnesia was different from calcium carbonate. Thus, it was Joseph Black who was the first to identify magnesium as an element.

Sir Humpry Davy: However, the first isolation of magnesium was done in 1808 by a British chemist, Sir Humpry Davy, who isolated the element from magnesium oxide and mercuric oxide. Davy used electrolysis technique on the mixture of mercury and magnesium, and then heated the amalgam in a glass tube to disposed off the mercury and get magnesium.

Antoine A. B. Bussy: In 1831, the Frenchman Antoine A.B Bussy succeeded in isolating large amounts of magnesium. Bussy came up with an ingenious method of heating magnesium chloride and potassium in a glass tube. The precipitate potassium chloride would be washed off to get isolated magnesium in large quantities.

The Name Magnesium

Although Sir Humpry Davy's first suggestion for a name was magnium, the name magnesium has stuck on and is being used today. The element is named after the Greek word for a district in Thessaly called Magnesia. This is the place where the element was first found.

Properties of Magnesium

Properties	Value
Symbol	Mg
Atomic mass	24.305 amu
Atomic number	12
Boiling Point	1107.0 °C
Melting Point	650.0 °C
Density	1.738 g/cm3

Ribbons or powdered forms of magnesium burn with a brilliant white light, thus, used in pyrotechnics, photographic flashbulbs, flares, etc. Magnesium burns at relatively low temperatures, thus, its use as structural material is limited, nevertheless, it is a light metal, which is why it can be used easily to build things. When alloyed with aluminum, it becomes easier to roll and weld. The magnesium-aluminum alloy is quite famous for its strength and light weight properties, thereby, giving it a major place in airline, rocket and missile manufacturing. As far as the body is concerned, magnesium plays the role of calming the muscles and nerves and also plays a role in the production of protein.

Thus, if it wasn't for those three pioneers who put in so much effort, we would have been oblivious of the wonders of magnesium.