columbium
Noun
Meaning
A rare element of the vanadium group, first found in a variety of the mineral columbite occurring in Connecticut, probably at Haddam. Atomic weight 94.2. Symbol Cb or Nb. Now more commonly called niobium.
Source: Webster's dictionarySynonyms
Hypernyms
Examples
In 1864 and 1865, a series of scientific findings clarified that niobium and columbium were the same element (as distinguished from tantalum), and for a century both names were used interchangeably.
He decided to keep the name tantalum. citation After Friedrich Wöhler confirmed these results, it was thought that columbium and tantalum were the same element.
The latter name is still sometimes used in US industry. citation This was a compromise of sorts; the IUPAC accepted tungsten instead of wolfram in deference to North American usage; and niobium instead of columbium in deference to European usage.
Niobium was officially adopted as the name of the element in 1949, but the name columbium remains in current use in metallurgy in the United States.
The English chemist Charles Hatchett reported a new element similar to tantalum in 1801 and named it columbium.