Gallium

Gallium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ga and atomic number 31. Discovered by the French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran in Paris, France, 1875, elemental gallium is a soft, silvery metal at standard temperature and pressure. In its liquid state, it becomes silvery white. If enough force is applied, solid gallium may fracture conchoidally. Since its discovery in 1875, gallium has widely been used to make alloys with low melting points. It is also used in semiconductors, as a dopant in semiconductor substrates.

French chemist (1838–1912)

nuclides with atomic number of 31 but with different mass numbers

Austrium is the name of a new chemical element proposed by Eduard Linnemann in 1886. As a chemist at the German University in Prague he experimented with the mineral orthite (from Arendal in Norway). In the course of his works over several years he detected spectral lines at 4165 and 4030 Angstrom, respectively, which he was not able to ascribe to any then known element. These findings were published only after his death after due consideration on May 6, 1886, by the Academy of Sciences of Prague.