G. Thomson
| Guglielmo Thomson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
William Thomson 1760 |
| Died | 1806 (aged 46) Palermo, Italy |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Geologist |
| Known for | Discovery of Widmanstätten pattern |
William Thomson (1760 – November 1806) was an English mineralogist, who used the name Guglielmo Thomson in Italy in later life. He died in Palermo at the early age of 46 years.
Thomson at the time was living in Naples. One day he decided to treat with nitric acid a sample of the Krasnojarsk meteorite with the purpose of cleaning it from rust. 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.
In 1804 he published his discovery in French on the Bibliothèque Britannique. In 1808 his work was published post-mortem also in Italian language (translated from the original English manuscript) on Atti dell'Accademia Delle Scienze di Siena.
The discovery is commonly credited to Count Alois von Beckh Widmanstätten probably due the early death of Thomson and the lack of an English publication. The discovery of Widmanstätten was independent, but it dates 1808 and it lacks publication.
So the full credit of the discovery should be assigned to G. Thomson due to chronological priority. For this reason, several authors suggested to call the pattern also Thomson structure.
...
Wikipedia