German physicist and chemist · 1799–1882
Ferdinand Reich
Ferdinand Reich co-discovered indium in 1863, even though he could not see the colour that gave it away.
How Indium was found
Reich was looking for thallium in zinc ores from Freiberg and obtained a precipitate he suspected contained a new element. Because he was colour-blind, he asked his assistant, Theodor Richter, to examine it with a spectroscope.
Richter saw a brilliant indigo line not belonging to any known element. They named the metal indium, after the colour, and produced the first samples of the metal in 1864.
Shared the credit
The discovery is credited jointly to these scientists.
Life and career
Born 1799 · Died 1882
Reich was born in Bernburg and spent his career at the Freiberg Mining Academy. As a physicist he measured the density of the Earth and, in 1831, made experiments dropping objects down a mine shaft that showed the Earth’s rotation deflects falling bodies.
Discovered in the same era
Other elements identified within ten years of 1863.