Tellurium History

Tellurium was discovered in a gold ore from the mines in Zlatna, near present day Sibiu, Transylvania. The ore was known as "Faczebajer weißes blättriges Golderz" (white leafy gold ore from Faczebaja) or antimonalischer Goldkies (antimonic gold pyrite). In 1782, while serving as the Austrian chief inspector of mines in Transylvania Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein concluded that ore did not contain antimony, but that it contained bismuth sulfide. However the following year, he reported that this was erroneous and that the ore contained mostly gold and an unknown metal very similar to antimony. After 3 years of testing Müller determined the specific gravity of the mineral and noted the radish-like odor of the white smoke, which passed off, when the new metal was heated. In 1789, another Hungarian scientist, Pál Kitaibel, also discovered the element independently in an ore from Deutsch-Pilsen which had been regarded as argentiferous molybdenite, but later he gave the credit to Müller. In 1798, it was named by Martin Heinrich Klaproth who earlier isolated it from the mineral calaverite.