Friedrich Stromeyer, a German chemist investigating a sample of zinc carbonate, cadmia (now called calamine) that is yellow instead of the usual white, finds and describes a new metal in 1817.

In the same year, Karl Samuel Leberecht Hermann and J. C. H. Roloff find the same new metal in a specimen of zinc oxide, used at this time in medicine.

These researchers are examining both zinc compounds because their purity as pharmaceuticals is suspect.

The yellow color is due to the new element, which receives the name cadmium after the ore in which it is found.

A historical debate still remains as to who actually discovered the pure form of the element first.