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From Bedrock to Porcelain : A study regarding the history of porcelain, Ytterby mine and the discovery of yttrium in Sweden

Porcelain is a translucent vitreous material that consists of clay (kaolin), feldspar and quartz which has been mixed and heated together to cause a metamorphic reaction. In Sweden, the Porcelain industry was established in 1726 at Rörstrands castle in Stockholm and is today one of the oldest industries in Europe to produce porcelain. Around the 1790’s Rörstrand got its feldspars and quartz from the Ytterby mine that was located at Resarö in Stockholm’s archipelago making the raw material somewhat easy to access. Rörstrand owned the mine in the 1850’s to 1926. During the time Ytterby mine was active, an amateur geologist by the name of Carl Axel Arrhenius, discovered an unusual black mineral in the quarry ore in 1787 which later led to the discovery of 8 new rare earth elements (REE) with the help of several Swedish chemists throughout time. These elements are Yttrium, Ytterbium, Gadolinium, Terbium, Thulium, Erbium, Holmium and scandium. This study will focus on the Swedish porcelain industry and how it has evolved throughout history and Rörstrand’s role in the discovery of yttrium.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-167721
Date January 2017
CreatorsKärrström, Timmy
PublisherStockholms universitet, Institutionen för geologiska vetenskaper
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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