Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery-grey, malleable transition metal. The elemental metal is rarely found in nature, but once isolated artificially, the formation of an oxide layer (passivation) somewhat stabilizes the free metal against further oxidation.
The history of Pittsburgh began with centuries of Native American civilization in the modern Pittsburgh region, known as "Dionde:gâ'" in the Seneca language. Eventually, European explorers encountered the strategic confluence where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio, which leads to the Mississippi River. The area became a battleground when France and Great Britain fought for control in the 1750s. When the British were victorious, the French ceded control of territories east of the Mississippi.
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company", and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in 1945. The company acquired the CBS television network in 1995, and was renamed as the first incarnation of "CBS Corporation", until being acquired by Viacom in 1999. That merger was completed on April 26, 2000.
United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with production operations in the United States and Central Europe. As of 2018, the company was the world's 38th-largest steel producer and the second-largest in the US, trailing only Nucor Corporation.
The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting, and marketing of petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline (petrol). Petroleum is also the raw material for many chemical products, including pharmaceuticals, solvents, fertilizers, pesticides, synthetic fragrances, and plastics. The extreme monetary value of oil and its products has led to it being known as "black gold". The industry is usually divided into three major components: upstream, midstream, and downstream. Upstream regards exploration and extraction of crude oil, midstream encompasses transportation and storage of crude, and downstream concerns refining crude oil into various end products.
The Jones and Laughlin Steel Company began as the American Iron Company, founded in 1852 by Bernard Lauth and B. F. Jones, a few miles south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River. Lauth's interest was bought in 1854 by James Laughlin. The first firm to bear the name of Jones and Laughlin was organized in 1861 and headquartered at Third & Ross in downtown Pittsburgh.
Mine Safety Appliances, or MSA Safety Incorporated, is a maker of safety products to protect workers exposed to a variety of hazardous conditions in such industries as construction, the military, fire service, and chemical, oil, and gas production.
The Chartiers branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad followed Chartiers Creek from Carnegie to Washington, passing Bridgeville, present day Southpointe, and Canonsburg. It is 23.6 miles (38.0 km) long and construction was completed in 1867 and is still in use today, after passing through at least seven different owners.
John Gruard McCaskey was an American oil businessman.
The Periodic Table is a collection of short stories by Primo Levi, published in 1975, named after the periodic table in chemistry. In 2006, the Royal Institution of Great Britain named it the best science book ever.
While the local use of oil goes back many centuries, the petroleum industry is of recent origin. Its current status as a key component of politics, society, and technology has its roots in the kerosene industry of the late 19th century. The use of the internal combustion engine for automobiles and trucks after 1900 was the critical factor in the explosive growth of the industry in the United States, Russia and the Middle East. When diesel fuel replaced steam engines in warships, control of oil supplies became a factor in military strategy--and played a key role in World War II. In the 20th century issues of air pollution led to government regulation. In the early 21st century environmental issues regarding global warming from oil and gas makes the industry politically controversial.
Chartiers Creek is a tributary of the Ohio River in Western Pennsylvania in the United States. The creek was named after Peter Chartier, a trapper of French and Native American parentage.
Uranium mining in Colorado, United States, goes back to 1872, when pitchblende ore was taken from gold mines near Central City, Colorado. The Colorado uranium industry has seen booms and busts, but continues to this day. Not counting byproduct uranium from phosphate, Colorado is considered to have the third largest uranium reserves of any US state, behind Wyoming and New Mexico.
Patronite is the vanadium sulfide mineral with formula VS4. The material is usually described as V4+(S22−)2. Structurally, it is a "linear-chain" compound with alternating bonding and nonbonding contacts between the vanadium centers. The vanadium is octa-coordinated, which is an uncommon geometry for this metal.
Industrial Scientific Corporation, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, designs and manufactures gas detection products that protect workers from hazardous conditions around the world. Key markets include utilities, chemical production, oil and gas, steel and coke, paper industry, fire service, construction, military, insurance companies, food service, and general industry.
Cyclops Steel was a steel company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded in nearby Bridgeville, Pennsylvania in 1908 as Universal Rolling Mill Company, and merged with Cyclops Steel Company founded in 1884 of the Western Pennsylvania city of Titusville in 1936. Cyclops Steel marketed to industries such as aerospace, automotive, business machines, chemical processing, communications equipment, construction, electronics, farm machinery, food processing equipment, home appliances and cutlery, industrial machinery, marine equipment, medical equipment, drilling and mining equipment, military equipment, power generation equipment, rail transportation, sports equipment and tools, ties and fixtures.
The Standard Chemical Company (SCC) of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, was the first successful commercial producer of radium. SCC operated the radium refining mill from 1911 to 1922 on a 19-acre plot of land. The company supplied radium to the United States Radium Corporation for use in their watch dials.
The Minas Ragra was a large vanadium mine in the Pasco Region of Peru. The deposit was discovered by a United States Geological Survey expedition on November 20. 1905. Members of this expeditions were Donnel Foster Hewett and José J. Bravo In this deposit the mineral patrónite was first discovered by a member of the expedition Antenor Rizo-Patron. A mine was established in very short time by the Vanadium Corporation of America. By 1914 75% of the world vanadium ore production was coming from the Minas Ragra in Peru, making the mine the world leading producer of vanadium. With the production of vanadium as side product of uranium mining from carnotite the mine had to close in 1955.
The global vanadium cycle is controlled by physical and chemical processes that drive the exchange of vanadium between its two main reservoirs: the upper continental crust and the ocean. Anthropogenic processes such as coal and petroleum production release vanadium to the atmosphere.
