Alexander_Calciumhist

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=History of Calcium= The chemical element Calcium was virtually unknown before the 19th century. However, the minerals Gypsum and Limestone (which contains Calcium) has been used and studied from ancient times by for example the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans when constructing structures. By the end of the 1700's, chemists began to suspect that Limestone and Gypsum shared a common chemical element. After many failures to find this element, Sir Humphry Davy found Calcium in 1808 when he electrolyzed small impure bits of Calcium from a mixture of Lime and Mercuric Oxide. However, pure Calcium could not be prepared until the early 1900's. The name Calcium comes from the Latin word calcis, which means lime. = =

Sir Humphry Davy
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