Adapted from an image by George Charles Beresford (1864-1938) (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.
1832–1919
William Crookes
Discovered thallium in 1861.
Element
81TlThallium
1861
In 1861 William Crookes, in London, saw a bright green line in the spectrum of a residue from sulfuric acid making. He named the new element thallium, from the Greek for a green shoot.
Keep exploring
Where the dates and stories on this page come from; each event on the timeline links to its own source.
- William CrookesEncyclopaedia Britannica
- ThalliumRoyal Society of Chemistry
- William CrookesWikipedia