The element was discovered on Earth in 1817 by Johan August Arfvedson (1792-1841) in Stockholm when he investigated petalite, one of the first lithium minerals to be discovered. (It was observed to give an intense crimson flame when sprinkled on to a fire.) He deduced that petalite contained an unknown metal, which he called lithium from the Greek word for a stone, lithos, although he never actually produced any. He reasoned that it was a new alkali metal and lighter than sodium. However, unlike sodium, which Humphry Davy had isolated in 1807 by the electrolysis of sodium hydroxide, Arfvedson was unable to produced lithium by the same method. A sample of lithium metal was finally extracted in 1855 and then by the electrolysis of molten lithium