Episode 1 of 2
Tennant Announces Iridium and Osmium
- When
- June 21, 1804
- Where
- Royal Society
Smithson Tennant documented the discovery of iridium and osmium in a letter to the Royal Society on June 21, 1804.
Tennant analyzed insoluble residues from platinum ores in 1803, concluding they contained new metals. The discovery was formally documented in a letter to the Royal Society on June 21, 1804, establishing his priority over French chemists who observed similar residues but lacked sufficient material.
Sources
- Iridium Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-26
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.