History
         Boron was discovered in 1808 but in fact had been used for thousands of years to make glass and other useful objects. Until the 1700s scientists still didn’t know practically anything about Boron. In 1799 when it was established that common “sedative salt” is actually a compound of Boron called boric acid. In 1808 two Frenchmen, Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis-Jaques Thenard, and an Englishman, Sir Humphry Davy managed to isolate Boron from boric acid. They learned as much as they could but Boron is like the newer more complex elements because it’s very confusing and hard to understand. No one knows why exactly but it is very hard to learn things about it that has to do with its atomic structure.

Common Uses
         One thing that Boron is commonly used in is glass. It is used when it is heating up so the melting point is significantly lower than if Boron wasn’t included. Boron is also used in clean detergent. In cleaning solutions Boron is in the compound boric acid. It is a very useful element because the things it is in are things that we typically use very often. Boron is also used when there is a forest fire they take Borax and spray it from airplanes over the fire and it makes the trees more resistant to catching on fire so it’s easier for firefighters to stop it. Because it coats the wood it is more resistant to future fires.

Where Its Found
         Boron is never found uncombined in nature. It occurs as othoboric acid that is usually found in some volcanic spring waters. Rasorite and tincal are both important sources of boron and are found in the Mojave Desert. Boron is also commonly found in Turkey. Pure Boron cost $250 for 100 grams in a bottle. That is not a lot even though it is not found in many places, but where it is found there is usually a lot of it.