Vanadium

Vanadium has been discovered twice! It was first found in 1801 by Andrés Manuel del Río in Mexico, but he was talked out of his discovery by other scientists. Then in 1830, Nils Gabriel Sefström rediscovered it in Sweden and named it after Vanadís, the Norse goddess of beauty, because vanadium compounds come in stunningly beautiful colors — red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.

Vanadium is used to make super-strong steel alloys. Henry Ford used vanadium steel in the Model T because it was lighter and tougher than regular steel. Today, vanadium is found in tools, springs, and jet engines. Vanadium redox flow batteries are an emerging technology for storing renewable energy from solar and wind farms.

Vanadium's symbol 'V' is a distinctive single-letter element in Spellement. While fewer English words start with V compared to other letters, it opens up words like 'very,' 'voice,' and 'victory,' giving spellers a unique consonant for creative element combinations.