Tungsten
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Tungsten. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a metallic element. It is known also as wolfram. Symbol, W; specific gravity , 16.6. It is a heavy metal, harder than glass and more magnetic than iron. It was long mistaken for tin. It is worth about $1.25 a pound. Pure tungsten is hard enough to scratch glass. Tungsten fuses at a higher temperature than any other metal known. Tungsten metal is used for the filament of electric light bulbs. It is considered superior to the old bamboo and the newer carbon filament. It is claimed that, with a tungsten filament, only one-third as great an electric current is needed. As the metal cannot be drawn into wire, the filaments are formed by forcing tungsten "dough" through an "eye." An alloy of tungsten is used for tool steel. It resists rust. Five per cent of tungsten is used in making magnets. Tungsten for strength is added to steel used in heavy guns and battleship armor. Aluminum with a percentage of tungsten combines lightness and strength, a union of qualities much sought by makers of automobiles. Ores from which tungsten may be extracted are found in Montana, Canada, Australia, New Zealand , Great Britain , Saxony, Bohemia, and Spain, but a less expensive source of supply is to be desired.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a rare metallic element, found in wolfram, which is a tungstate of iron and manganese, and likewise found in scheelite, which is a tungstate of lime. The metal (Swedish, tung-sten, "heavy stone") is obtained either as a dark-gray powder or in heavy iron-gray bars, which are very hard and difficult of fusion, and have a sp. gr. of 19.1. Aqua regia and nitric acid convert it into tungstic acid. When 10 parts of this metal are alloyed with 90 of steel a mass of extraordinary hardness is obtained. Tungsten forms two compounds with oxygen-viz., a binoxide, WO2, which is obtained in the form of a brown powder by heating tungstic acid to low redness in a current of hydrogen, and which does not form salts with acids; and an acid oxide, known as tungstic anhydride, WOs. Various tungstates have been formed and examined. Of these the most important is the tungstate of soda, which answers admirably as a means of preventing muslin, etc., from bursting out in a flame when brought in contact with fire.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 entry states flatly that tungsten "cannot be drawn into wire" and that filaments must be squeezed out as a paste "dough" — the very year William Coolidge at General Electric worked out how to make tungsten ductile, giving the drawn-wire filament that lit homes for the next century. Aiton's density of 16.6 was low; Collier's 19.1 in 1921 is close to the accepted 19.25, and tungsten's melting point, now measured at 3,422 °C, is still the highest of any metal. The filament itself has largely gone: incandescent bulbs were phased out across the EU and United States between roughly 2007 and 2014 in favour of LEDs, and tungsten's main use today is cemented tungsten carbide for cutting tools and drill bits. The scattered ore sources listed in 1910 have also shifted decisively — China now supplies the great majority of world tungsten, and the metal is one of the four "conflict minerals" subject to supply-chain reporting rules.
Written for this edition, 2026.