Discovery of gallium

Gallium was discovered in 1875 by the French chemist Paul-Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in Paris, who used the new technique of spectroscopy on a sample of zinc blende from the Pyrenees. He saw a pair of previously unobserved violet lines in the spectrum, and later isolated a small amount of the metal by electrolysis. Its discovery was a triumph for the periodic table of Dmitri Mendeleev, who had predicted an element he called eka-aluminium with very similar properties. When Mendeleev heard that the measured density differed from his prediction, he suggested that Lecoq de Boisbaudran check his sample, and the corrected value agreed. The name comes from Gallia, the Latin name for France. Gallium melts at about 30 degrees Celsius, so it liquefies in the hand, and its compounds are used in LEDs and semiconductors.

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