The discovery of yttrium (atomic number 39) began in 1787 when Carl Arrhenius found a mineral that resembled coal in a quartz mine near Ytterby of Sweden. Arrhenius named this black mineral ‘ytterbite’ based on Ytterby, where it was found.
In Finland, Johan Gadolin received a sample of ytterbite from Arrhenius. He carried out a detailed analysis of it in 1794 and found that it contained an unknown earth metal. The new metal was named yttrium. His results were confirmed by Anders Ekeberg, a Swedish chemist in 1797.
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