The discovery of fluorine
The hazardous nature of hydrogen fluoride brought agony and death to investigators during early attempts to isolate fluorine
In the 1500s, Georgius Agricola, a German mineralogist, described a crystalline material that helped some ores melt at lower temperatures. He called it fluores, from the Latin fleure, meaning 'to flow'. Today we know it as fluorspar, fluorite, calcium fluoride or CaF2. It was found to have a remarkable property.
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