Technique developed for preparation of niobium

Niobium has moved a step closer toward its expected use in rockets, missiles, jet engines, and nuclear reactors of the future, it was stated by Westinghouse scientists who have developed a technique for the preparation of this rare and littleknown chemical element. Preparation of the metal in its purest possible form is essential to a basic understanding of the properties that make it of interest as a high-temperature structural metal. The high-purity niobium was produced by a metallurgical process discovered at the Westinghouse Research Laboratories near Pittsburgh, Pa., and called “cage zone melting.” It has produced the purest niobium ever made on a scale large enough for realistic scientific study of the ultrapure metal.