In 1862 Bahr analysed the mineral Orthite—Allanite-(Y)—from the Norwegian island Rönsholm and found an oxide which he concluded contained a new element. In the following years several articles were published making clear that the wasium oxide was a mixture of several other elements.[3][4][5]
Wasium was said by M. Bahr to exist in Norwegianorthite and orthite from Ytterby. Bahr also said that it existed on the island of Raenshohm.[6] Wasium was supposedly found in the mineral wasite, which is a form of allanite.[7]