Magnets, Magnesium and Manganese

  
Have you ever wondered why are magnesium and manganese similarly named? And do they have anything to do with magnets? I have. And I went seeking for the answer and reached - Greece.

GLORY TO GREECE!

Once upon a time, two black minerals were discovered in Magnesia, Thessaly, Greece. This place is the home to a beloved Hellenic hero, Jason (the golden fleece & argonauts).



Now the problem was, both were called magnes from their place of origin, but were considered to differ in gender. 

MAGNETIC MAN...

The masculine magnes attracted iron, and was the iron ore now known as lodestone or magnetite, and thus gave us the term magnet i.e. The word magnet was adopted in Middle English from Latin magnetum "lodestone", ultimately from Greek magnētis [lithos] meaning "[stone] from Magnesia".

METALLIC WOMAN

The feminine magnes ore did not attract iron. But was used to decolourize glass. 

This feminine magnes was later called magnesia, known now in modern times as pyrolusite.

GLASSMAKERS SPLIT IT 

In the 16th century, manganese dioxide was called manganesum (corruption of name!) by glassmakers, since alchemists and glassmakers eventually had to differentiate a magnesia negra (the black ore) from magnesia alba (a white ore),which was also from Magnesia and also useful in glassmaking.

FINALLY...THE NAMES GO TO,

Michele Mercati, a polymath, called magnesia negra manganesa, and finally the metal isolated from it became known as manganese. 

The name magnesia eventually was then used to refer only to the white magnesia alba (magnesium oxide), which provided the name magnesium for the free element when it was isolated much later.

MAGNESIUM AND MANGANESE

Magnesium is an alkaline earth metal which is the 4th most abundant element in Earth, only behind Iron,Oxygen&Silicon (pretty impressive!). Manganese is, on the other hand, a transition metal, the 5th most abundant metal on Earth's crust.

Both give important alloys: Magnesium Aluminium alloys, like Magnalium, render great strength, workability and lightness thereby they are used in aircrafts and automobiles for building their parts. Manganese, meanwhile, is virtually present in every commercially available steel objects and responsible for the steel's hardness and strength, after carbon.  

Both have important roles in biology, like; magnesium is required for over 300 enzymes to function and is the central (literally) component in chlorophyll and manganese acts as cofactor in our body and responsible for oxygen evolution during photosynthesis in plants.

So, Magnesium and Manganese (and Magnets) all arose(!) from the same place thus leading to them being named such...Magnanimous!

SSV