History and Discovery

Fluorine is a fairly new element in human history. In ancient times, only small uses of fluorine-containing minerals existed. Georgius Agricola in the 1500s, described the industrial use of fluorite, fluorine's source mineral, in the context of smelting. The name "fluorite" (and later Fluorine) comes from Latin terminology. By the early 1800s, it was recognized that fluorine was a bound element within compounds, similar to chlorine. Fluorite was determined to be calcium fluoride. It was discovered in 1886