Here are two trivia questions for you: What’s the strongest metal on Earth? And why is it called “wolf cream”?

It was discovered in the 1400’s when miners found a hairy black mineral with tin ore. When they smelted the two together, the surface of the melted ore foamed and a heavy slag consumed much of the tin.

They named the mineral “wolf” for its furry appearance and appetite for tin and “rahm” or cream for the foam. Wolfram. In Europe, it’s still called that.

But elsewhere, it has a name given by a Swedish chemist who found it with iron ore. It was much heavier, so he called it “heavy stone.” In Swedish, tung-sten.

After separating the pure metal, he found tungsten was not only a new element but extremely strong.

It’s now used today whenever a highly durable metal is required, especially in its even harder alloy form, tungsten carbide.

You can find it in household items like the ball in a ball point pen.

But it has more exotic uses, in X-ray machines and X-ray resistant aprons. In armor and armor-piercing artillery. In rock drills and tunneling machines. In jet and rocket engines.

It won’t rust or react to acids. It’s 100 times as abrasion resistant as steel, yet it’s easy to recycle.

Tungsten, wolfram, really is a beast of a metal.