LibGuides: Rare Earth Elements: Home

The Rare Earth Industry, 1915.

Image depicting the "flashing" room of the Edison and Swan Electric Light Company where workers prepare filaments for incandescent electric glow lamps using a process called "flashing" in which carbon is deposited onto a filament.

Welsbach Gas Light Company Photograph Album 1920-1929.

Album containing 52 black and white photographs documenting various aspects of the production process at the Welsbach Gas Light Company site located along the Delaware River in Gloucester City, New Jersey. From 1888 to 1940, the Welsbach Gas Light Company held exclusive manufacturing and sales rights to the Welsbach gas mantle, a device made of fibers impregnated with oxides of thorium and cerium that produced bright white light when heated with a gas flame. Invented in 1880's by Austrian scientist Carl Auer Von Welsbach (1858-1929), these gas mantles were used extensively in street lighting and in gas-powered appliances.

The "Whoop" Gas Lighter.

Lighter using pyrophoric alloys or "Misch" metals to create a spark.

Books on the History of Rare Earths

A Tale of Seven Elements
Author: Eric Scerri.
Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013.
more...less...
Includes a section on Element 61--promethium.
Episodes from the history of the rare earth elements
Editor: C.H. Evans.
Dordrecht; Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, c1996.
Analysis, detection, and commercial value of the rare metals: a treatise on the occurrence and distribution of the rare metals and earths, the methods of determination, and their commercial value in the arts and industries: with a historical and statistic
Author: J. Ohly.
Denver: Industrial Printing & Pub. Co., 1903.
Carl Auer von Welsbach: chemist, inventor, entrepreneur.
Authors: Roland Adunka, Mary Virginia Orna.
Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2018.

Reference Sources

The history and use of our earth's chemical elements : a reference guide.
Author: Robert E. Krebs; illustrations by Rae Déjur.
Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1998.
Bibliography of the geology and mineralogy of the rare earths and scandium to 1971.
Authors: John W. Adams and Eleanora R. Iberall.
Washington : U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1973.
Abstracts of Major Work Concerning Rare Earths in Glass for the Control of Radiations.
Author: Molycorp, Inc.
White Plains, NY: Molycorp, 1981.
A Bibliography of Research in Catalysis with the Rare Earth Elements.
Author: Molycorp, Inc.
White Plains, N.Y.: Molycorp, 1971.
Abstracts of major work concerning rare earths in optical & special property glasses : including decolorization & analytical methods.
Author: Molycorp, Inc.
White Plains, NY: Molycorp, 1981.
Abstracts of major work concerning lanthanides (rare earths) in refractories, engineering ceramics & polishing compounds.
Author: Molycorp, Inc.
White Plains, NY: Molycorp, 1982.

Science History Institute Projects and Articles

Rare Earth Elements Project
Science Matters: The Case of Rare Earth Elements
An Educational Resource.
Choosing a Better High-Tech Future
Rare earth elements make modern devices faster, brighter, and lighter, but it will take the creaky gears of government to make their production cleaner and more equitable.
By Roger Turner | DISTILLATIONS, December 10, 2019
Rare Earths: The Hidden Cost to Their Magic
Rare earth elements are essential to modern life. Luckily the world has plenty of them; unfortunately, getting them out of the ground leaves behind massive environmental damage.
DISTILLATIONS Episode 242 | June 25, 2019

Oral Histories

Search the text transcripts of the Oral History Collection in the Digital Collection. Many of our oral history interviewees mention rare earths.

https://digital.sciencehistory.org/

Archival Collections

Papers of Paul C. Lauterbur, 1945-2010.
The collection contains Nobel laureate Paul Lauterbur's groundbreaking work in the field of spectroscopy. His early work, dealing with 13C spectroscopy as well as his invention of NMR zeugmatography/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are both thoroughly documented. Lauterbur's grant applications, research data, publications, presentations, and student work are contained within the collection.
Some material on the use of Gadolinium as a contrast agent in MRI’s.

Objects and Artifacts from our Museum Collection

Welsbach Gas Mantel Collection

List and description of items.

General Information

Othmer Library of Chemical History

Science History Institute
315 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106

Monday - Friday
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

List of the Rare Earth Elements

Try searching the library catalog for specific elements, they're discoverer, or their related industries.

Othmerlib.sciencehistory.org/

Element

Discovery

Common Uses

Scandium

Lars Frederik Nilson in 1879

Alloy for light-weight applications,

Yttrium

Johan Gadolin in 1794

Superconductors, Glass, Lasers, LED lights, Alloys

Lanthanum

Carl Gustaf Mosander (1797-1858)

Glass, Flints, Semiconductor

Cerium

M.H. Klaproth, J.J. Berzelius, W. Hisinger in 1808

Alloys, Flints, Catalysis, Light-bulbs, Pigment

Praseodymium

Carl Auer Baron von Welsbach in 1885

Pigment for glass and ceramics, Electrodes for arc lamps

Neodymuim

Carl Auer Baron von Welsbach in 1885

Electronics, Colored glass, Alloys, Flints

Promethium

J.A. Marinsky, L.E. Glendenin, and C.D. Coryell in 1945

Atomic batteries, Luminescent paints, Source of radioactivity

Samarium

Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1879

Magnets for electronic devices, Glass, Ceramics, Lighting

Europium

Eugène-Anatole Demarçay in 1901

Color for inks and light bulbs, Control rods in nuclear reactors, Alloys

Gadolinium

Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac in 1880

Alloys, Nuclear reactors

Terbium

Carl Gustaf Mosander in 1843

Solid-state electronics, Light bulbs, X-rays, Speakers

Dysprosium

Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran

in 1886

Alloys for magnets in the green energy field, Nuclear reactor control rods, Lighting

Holmium

P.T. Cleve, M. Delafontaine and L. Soret in 1878

Nuclear reactors, Alloys for magnets

Erbium

Carl Gustaf Mosander in 1843

In Glass for pink color, Gems, Fiber optic cables, Safety glass

Thulium

Per Teodor Cleve in 1879

X-rays, Lasers

Ytterbium

Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac in 1878

Industrial catalyst

Lutetium

Georges Urbain, Charles James in 1907

Catalyst, Research

Books on the Rare Earths in Industry and Technology

Extractive Metallurgy of Rare Earths.
Authors: Nagaiyar Krishnamurthy, Chiranjib Kumar Gupta.
Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis, CRC Press, 2016.
Thermochemistry of the Rare Earth Carbides, Nitrides, and Sulfides for Steelmaking.
Authors: Karl A. Gschneidner and Nancy Kippenhan.
Ames, Ia. : Rare Earth Information Center, Institute for Atomic Research, Iowa State University, 1972.
The rare earth industry: including the manufacture of incandescent mantles, pyrophoric alloys, and electrical glow lamps / by Sydney J. Johnstone; together with a chapter on the Industry of radioactive substances / by Alexander S. Russell.
Author: Johnstone, Sydney J.
New York : D. Appleton, 1915.
Rare earth technology and applications
Editor: F. Villani.
Park Ridge, N.J.: Noyes Data Corp., 1980.
The rare earth industry
Author: R. J. Callow.
Oxford, New York, Pergamon Press [1966]
Extraction and refining of the rarer metals; a Symposium on Extraction Metallurgy of Some of the Less Common Metals arranged by the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy
Published by: Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (Great Britain)
London, 1957.

Books on the Chemistry of Rare Earth Elements

Analytical Chemistry of Technetium, Promethium, Astatine and Francium.
Author: A. K. Lavrukhina and A. A. Pozdnyakov. Translated by R. Kondor.
Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor-Humphrey Science Publishers, 1970.
The analysis of minerals & ores of the rarer elements; a manual for analytical chemists, metallurgists, and advanced students
Authors: W. R. Schoeller and A. R. Powell.
London, C. Griffin and company, limited, 1940.
Analytical chemistry of the rare earths.
Author: Vickery, R. C.
Oxford, New York, Pergamon Press, 1961.
Analytical methods for certain metals including cerium, thorium, molybdenum, tungsten, radium, uranium, vanadium, titanium and zirconium
Authors: R.B. Moore and S.C. Lind, J.W. Marden, J.P. Bonardi, C.W. Davis, and J.E. Conley.
Washington, D.C.: G.P.O., 1923.
Complexes of the rare earths
Author: Shyama P. Sinha.
Oxford, New York, Pergamon Press [1966]
Tables for emission spectrographic analysis of rare earth elements
Author: by Ch. Kerekes. Edited by L. Láng.
New York, Macmillan, 1964.

Books on the Issues with Rare Earth Mining and Use

The elements of power: gadgets, guns, and the struggle for a sustainable future in the rare metal age
Author: David S. Abraham.
New Haven: Yale University Press [2015]
Rare Earth Frontiers: From Terrestrial Subsoils to Lunar Landscapes
Open Source E-Book
Author: Julie Michelle Klinger
Cornell University Press, 2017