Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CO-LUM'BI-UM, n. [from Columbia, America.]

A metal first discovered in an ore or oxyd, found in Connecticut, at New London, near the house of Governor Winthrop, and by him transmitted to Sir Hans Sloane, by whom it was deposited in the British Museum. The same metal was afterwards discovered in Sweden, and called tantalum, and its ore tantalite. – Cleaveland.