Selenium was discovered in 1817 in the red mud accumulated at the bottom of a sulfuric acid lead chamber plant in which Jöns Jacob Berzelius (1779-1848) was a partner. The acid was manufactured from pyrite from Falun – the old mine in Sweden. Berzelius named the new element after Selene the goddess of the Moon in analogy with tellurium meaning Earth which was discovered earlier in 1782 in a gold ore in Transylvania in the Austrian Empire. The element was first mistaken for tellurium but on careful examination Berzelius found that it was a new element.