His next discovery, in 1781, was the composition of the mineral tungsten, since called scheelite (calcium tungstate), from which he obtained tungstic acid.
Tungsten may be prepared from wolfram by heating the powdered ore with sodium carbonate, extracting the sodium carbonate with water, filtering and adding an acid to precipitate tungstic acid, H 2 W0 4.
A crystalline form was obtained by Debray as olive-green prisms by igniting a mixture of sodium tungstate and carbonate in a current of hydrochloric acid gas, and by Nordenskjold by heating hydrated tungstic acid with borax.
Tungsten trioxide forms two acids, tungstic acid, H 2 WO 4, and metatungstic acid, H2W4013; it also gives origin to several series of salts, to which the acids corresponding are unknown.
Tungstic acid, H 2 W0 4, is obtained as H 2 W0 4 H 2 0 by precipitating a tungstate with cold acid; this substance has a bitter taste and its aqueous solution reddens litmus.