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William Thomson (1760 – November 1806) was an English mineralogist, who used the name Guglielmo Thomson in Italy in later life. He died in
p. 184
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Thomson at the time was living in
Palermo
Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...
at the age of 46 years.Gian Battista Vai, W. Glen E. Caldwell. ''The origins of geology in Italy''. Geological Society of America, 2006, . –p. 184
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Discovery of Widmanstätten pattern
Thomson at the time was living in Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
. One day he decided to treat a sample of the Krasnojarsk meteorite
A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...
with nitric acid
Nitric acid is the inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but older samples tend to be yellow cast due to decomposition into oxides of nitrogen. Most commercially available nitri ...
for the purpose of cleaning it of rust
Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH ...
. Shortly after the contact with acid he noticed on the surface of the metal a strange never seen before figures: it was the later-called Widmanstätten pattern
Widmanstätten patterns, also known as Thomson structures, are figures of long nickel–iron crystals, found in the octahedrite iron meteorites and some pallasites. They consist of a fine interleaving of kamacite and taenite bands or ribbons ...
.
In 1804, his discovery was published in the ''Bibliothèque Britannique'', in French.F. A. Paneth. ''The discovery and earliest reproductions of the Widmanstatten figures''. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 1960, 18, pp. 176–182 After his death, his work was published in 1808 in Italian (translated from the original English manuscript) on ''Atti dell'Accademia Delle Scienze di Siena''.
The discovery is commonly referred to as the ''Widmanstätten pattern'' after a similar discovery in 1808 by Count Alois von Beckh Widmanstätten, the director of the Imperial Porcelain works in Vienna
en, Viennese
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, while flame heating iron meteorite
Iron meteorites, also known as siderites, or ferrous meteorites, are a type of meteorite that consist overwhelmingly of an iron–nickel alloy known as meteoric iron that usually consists of two mineral phases: kamacite and taenite. Most iron ...
s,O. Richard Norton. ''Rocks from Space: Meteorites and Meteorite Hunters''. Mountain Press Pub. (1998)
probably due the early death of Thomson and the lack of an English publication.
The discovery of Widmanstätten was independent, but he did not publish his findings after he noticed color and luster zone differentiation as the various iron alloys oxidized at different rates. His findings were merely orally communication with his colleagues. The discovery was acknowledged by Carl von Schreibers, director of the Vienna Mineral and Zoology Cabinet, who named the structure after Widmanstätten.John G. Burke. ''Cosmic Debris: Meteorites in History''. University of California Press, 1986.
Due to chronological priority, the full credit of the discovery should be assigned to Thomson (1804). For this reason, several authors have suggested that the pattern could also be called the ''Thomson structure''.O. Richard Norton. ''The Cambridge encyclopedia of meteorites''. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002. .
See also
*Glossary of meteoritics
This is a glossary of terms used in meteoritics, the science of meteorites.
#
* 2 Pallas – an asteroid from the asteroid belt and one of the likely parent bodies of the CR meteorites.
* 4 Vesta – second-largest asteroid in the asteroid b ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, G 1760 births 1806 deaths English scientists Meteorite researchers