Ferdinand Reich
Encyclopedia
Ferdinand Reich was a German chemist
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...

 who co-discovered indium
Indium
Indium is a chemical element with the symbol In and atomic number 49. This rare, very soft, malleable and easily fusible post-transition metal is chemically similar to gallium and thallium, and shows the intermediate properties between these two...

 in 1863 with Hieronymous Theodor Richter
Hieronymous Theodor Richter
Hieronymus Theodor Richter was a German chemist.He was born in Dresden. In 1863, while working at the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology, he co-discovered indium with Ferdinand Reich. In 1875, he became the director of the school. He died 25 September 1898, in Freiberg, Saxony, at the...

.

Reich was born in Bernburg
Bernburg
Bernburg is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the district of Salzlandkreis. It is situated on the river Saale, approx. 30 km downstream from Halle. The town is dominated by its huge Renaissance castle featuring a museum as well as a popular, recently updated bear pit in its...

 and died in Freiberg
Freiberg, Saxony
Freiberg is a city in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, administrative center of the Mittelsachsen district.-History:The city was founded in 1186, and has been a center of the mining industry in the Ore Mountains for centuries...

. He was color blind
Color blindness
Color blindness or color vision deficiency is the inability or decreased ability to see color, or perceive color differences, under lighting conditions when color vision is not normally impaired...

, or could only see in whites and blacks, and that is why Theodor Richter became his science partner. Richter would examine the colors produced in reactions that they studied.

Reich and Richter ended up isolating the indium, creating a small supply, although it was later found in more regions. They isolated the indium at the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology
Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg
The Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg is a small German University of Technology with about 5000 students in the city of Freiberg, Saxony...

in Germany.

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