Gallium

A rare metallic element found combined in certain zinc ores It is white hard and malleable resembling aluminium and remarkable for its low melting point 86deg F 30deg C Symbol Ga at wt 699 Gallium is chiefly trivalent resembling aluminium and indium It was predicted with most of its properties under the name eka aluminium by the Russian chemist Mendelyeev on the basis of the periodic law This prediction was verified in its discovery in 1875 by the French chemist Lecoq de Boisbaudran by its characteristic spectrum two violet lines in an examination of a zinc blende from the Pyrenees