Editing Indium (section)

==History==
In 1863, German chemists [[Ferdinand Reich]] and [[Hieronymous Theodor Richter|Hieronymus Theodor Richter]] were testing ores from the mines around [[Freiberg, Saxony]]. They dissolved the minerals [[pyrite]], [[arsenopyrite]], [[galena]] and [[sphalerite]] in [[hydrochloric acid]] and distilled raw [[zinc chloride]]. Reich, who was [[color-blind]], employed Richter as an assistant for detecting the colored spectral lines. Knowing that ores from that region sometimes contain [[thallium]], they searched for the green thallium emission spectrum lines. Instead, they found a bright blue line. Because that blue line did not match any known element, they hypothesized a new element was present in the minerals. They named the element indium, from the [[indigo]] color seen in its spectrum, after the Latin ''indicum'', meaning 'of [[India]]'.<ref>{{cite journal|title = Ueber das Indium|author = Reich, F.|author2 = Richter, T.|journal = Journal für Praktische Chemie|volume = 90|issue = 1|pages = 172–176|date = 1863|doi = 10.1002/prac.18630900122|s2cid = 94381243|language = de|url = https://zenodo.org/record/1427838|access-date = 2019-06-30|archive-date = 2020-02-02|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200202154729/https://zenodo.org/record/1427838|url-status = live}}</ref><ref name="Venetskii">{{cite journal|title = Indium|last = Venetskii|first = S.|journal = Metallurgist|volume = 15|issue = 2|pages = 148–150|date = 1971|doi = 10.1007/BF01088126}}</ref><ref name="Greenwood244">Greenwood and Earnshaw, p. 244</ref><ref name="Weeks">{{cite journal|author=Weeks, Mary Elvira |author-link=Mary Elvira Weeks |title=The Discovery of the Elements: XIII. Some Spectroscopic Studies |journal=Journal of Chemical Education |volume=9 |issue=8 |pages=1413–1434 |url=http://search.jce.divched.org/JCEIndex/FMPro?-db=jceindex.fp5&-lay=wwwform&combo=weeks&-find=&-format=detail.html&-skip=27&-max=1&-token.2=27&-token.3=10 |doi=10.1021/ed009p1413 |year=1932 |bibcode=1932JChEd...9.1413W }}{{dead link|date=April 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Richter went on to isolate the metal in 1864.<ref>{{cite journal|title = Ueber das Indium|author = Reich, F.|author2=Richter, T.|journal = Journal für Praktische Chemie|volume = 92 |issue = 1 |pages = 480–485 |date = 1864|doi = 10.1002/prac.18640920180|language=de}}</ref> An ingot of {{convert|0.5|kg|lb|abbr=on}} was presented at the [[Exposition Universelle (1867)|World Fair]] 1867.<ref name="SchSch">{{cite book|title = Indium: Geology, Mineralogy, and Economics|first = Ulrich|last = Schwarz-Schampera|author2=Herzig, Peter M.|publisher = Springer|date = 2002|isbn = 978-3-540-43135-0|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=k7x_2_KnupMC&pg=PA1}}</ref> <!-- Until 1924, only approximately a gram of indium constituted the world's supply.<ref name=g1>{{cite journal|doi =10.1063/1.1769802|title =New Materials|year =1941|last1 =Olpin|first1 = A. R.|journal =Review of Scientific Instruments|volume =12|page =560|issue =11|bibcode = 1941RScI...12..560O }}</ref><ref name=g2>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QdU-lRMjOsgC&pg=PA24|title=Infectious diseases and pathology of reptiles: color atlas and text|author=Jacobson, E. R.|page=24|publisher=CRC Press|year=2007|isbn=0-8493-2321-5}}</ref> --> Reich and Richter later fell out when the latter claimed to be the sole discoverer.<ref name="Weeks" />