Discovery:
            Palladium was discovered in 1803 by the English chemist, William Hyde Wollaston.  He originally named it ceresium after a newly discovered asteroid, but changed it to palladium, after Pallas, another new asteroid, which was named after the Greek goddess of wisdom.  He discovered it while analyzing samples of platinum ore from South America.  He separated rhodium, another metal in the platinum group, two years later.

Location and Rarity:
            Palladium’s abundance in the Earth’s crust is about one to ten parts per trillion, and it is one of the ten rarest elements found in the crust.  It usually found in its native form with other members of the platinum group.  93 percent of it is produced in Russia and South Africa, but it is also found in the Americas and Canada.

Properties:
            Palladium is a soft, ductile transition metal with malleability similar to gold.  It doesn’t tarnish easily, which makes it ideal for jewelry making purposes.  It is silver- white and shiny.  Palladium is the most reactive of the “noble metals”. It combines poorly with oxygen at room temperature but will combust if it is ground into a powder.  Palladium doesn’t react with certain acids at room, temperature, but does when they are hot.  It will combine with fluorine and chlorine when very hot.