Iridium

Imperial Tobacco was founded in Nottingham by John Player, who was registered as a tobacconist in 1871.

He became so successful that seven years later he bought a factory and began manufacturing handmade cigarettes.

Another three factory blocks had been built in the Radford area of Nottingham by the 1880s.

The firm employed 7,000 staff and at its height made 52 billion cigarettes each year.

The old Imperial Tobacco building, known as the Horizon Factory in Nottingham, closed in May 2016 with the loss of about 500 jobs. Demolition on the site began in 2018.

Iridium has an atomic number of seventy-seven. It is a yellowish-white member of the platinum metals group, but its salts are very colourful.

Iridium was discovered in 1803, by English chemist Smithson Tennant in London.

Iridium’s name comes from the Latin word ‘iris’, meaning rainbow, because many of its salts are highly coloured.

Iridium Is the most corrosion-resistant material known.