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Legacy of a Light Element
| Article
# : |
16971 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
4 / 1990 |
2,563 Words |
| Author
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Michael Woods
Michael Woods, a contributing editor for THE WORLD & I, has
received numerous science-writing awards. |
Lithium is beginning its fifth decade of service to mankind as a potent medication that protects millions of people worldwide - perhaps as many as one in 1,500 - from the tragic mood swings of manic-depressive illness. Indeed, its contributions to psychiatry have been so profound and well publicized that it is nearly synonymous with treatment of manic-depressive disorder. Even the scientifically sophisticated may have difficulty naming other major uses for this third-lightest (after a hydrogen and helium) of all elements.
Yet lithium's uses are manifold. The soft, silvery white metal confers desirable properties on a wide range of commercial products, bringing greater efficiency to the processes used in their manufacture. It has played a leading role in the production of bathroom fixtures and glass bottles, of jet fighters and hydrogen bombs. It conserves enormous amounts of energy and reduces emissions of air pollutants when used in refining aluminum. As an indispensable ingredient in substances that reduce friction in motor vehicles and industrial machinery, it quite literally greases the skids of the world. And lithium batteries - small, long-lasting, and high energy - power wristwatches, pocket calculators, cameras, pacemakers, and other electronic products.
A relatively common element, lithium accounts for about 0.006 percent of the earth's crust - a higher proportion than such better-known metals as gold, silver, lead, or tin. Although at least 145 minerals contain lithium, only a few, including spodumene (the largest commercial source) and petalite, are important sources.
Lithium was discovered in 1817 by Johan August Arfwedson, a chemist working with the great Swedish master Jons Jakob Berzelius. While analyzing petalite, Arfwedson isolate a previously unrecognized element belonging to as chemical family called the alkali metals. Berzelius suggested the name lithion, from the Greek word meaning "mineral" or "stone". A year late, Sir Humphry Davy, the British chemist, succeeded in isolating the first tiny quantities of pure lithium metal - a substantial achievement, as lithium is so reactive that it does not occur in nature as pure metal.
For decades, however, it remained largely a laboratory curiosity. It was not until 1898 that commercial lithium mining began in the United States, and not until World War II, when lithium hydride was used to generate hydrogen gas to inflate life rafts and balloons for radio signaling and meteorology, that demand for it became
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