 Discovery Information |
| Who:
Sir William Crookes
|
| When: 1861 |
| Where: England |
|
| Name Origin |
| Greek: thallos (young shoot) from a bright-green line in its spectrum. |
|
| Sources |
| Found in iron pyrites. Also in the minerals crookesite, hutchinsonite and lorandite. |
|
| Uses |
| Its compounds were used in rat and ant poisons. Also for in gamma radioation detecting equipment, detecting infrared radiation and heart muscle research. |
|
| Notes |
| Thallium and its compounds are highly toxic and should be handled with great care. Thallium is a suspected human carcinogen. |
