This book was translated from the Russian by by N. G. Kittell, and was first published by Mir

in 1983.

This book  tells about some rare metals (including those called trace elements) and can be regarded as a second

part of S. I. Venetsky's Tales About Metals (It was published in English by Mir Publishers, Moscow, in 1981).

The author follows the same principle as in his previous work: rather than giving the reader any exhaustive information about every chemical element he describes, to tell him some interesting facts,curious incidents and tales associated with rare metals, to tell about the thorny path of any major scientific discovery and about some paths yet to be trodden in the amazing world of metals.