1. HISTORY OF MANGANESE

2. Manganese has been in use for thousands of years, long before modern industry made it a part of daily life. Here is a brief timeline of manganese, along with some ways it has commonly been used throughout the centuries.
The Stone Age : Humans use manganese dioxide in cave paintings during the Upper Paleolithic Period.

3. Ancient Greece:
The Spartans use manganese In their iron ore to make their Weapons.

4. Ancient Egyptians and Romans:
Both groups of people use manganese ore to decolorize or add color to glass.
A process still used in glass making today.

5. Discovery of Manganese as an element
1771: Carl Wilhelm Scheele recognizes Manganese as an element.
1774: Johan Gottleib Gahn isolates Manganese for the first time.
1816: Manganese is first observed to increase the hardness in iron.
1826: First ferromanganese produced, containing 80% manganese.
1840: Metallic manganese produced in England.
1860: The Bessemer process (the removal of excess oxygen and sulfur in steel) is refined by adding manganese, paving the way for the modern steel industry.
1866: Sir Walter Siemens patents the Bessemer process.
1868: Leclanche invents the dry cell battery, which uses manganese as a depolarizer.
1875: The commercial production of ferromanganese with a 65% manganese content begins.

6. Commercial production of ferromanganese containing 65 per cent Mn, started in France in 1875, using blast furnace technology

7. From 1890 ferromanganese could also be produced by submerged arc furnace (SAF). Due to the high cost and scarcity of coke, and the relative high capital investment required to build a blast furnace, electric arc furnaces started to replace blast furnace technology.
20th Century: The global, modern era of manganese production begins, with manganese mined all over the world and used in a variety of applications, from guardrails to train tracks to kitchen appliances.

8. Various minerals of Manganese
Spiegeleisen is an iron alloy with a manganese content of approximately 15%
Manganese ore
Psilomelane (manganese ore)
Manganese oxide dendrites on limestone from Solnhofen, Germany – a kind of pseudofossil. Scale is in mm,
Mineral rhodochrosite (manganese(II) carbonate)