‖ thorinum Chem. Obs.
(θɒˈraɪnəm)
[f. F. thorine and Eng. thorina, in accordance with L. names of metals in -um, as aurum, cuprum, plumbum.]
1. The name originally given to a hypothetical metal of which thorina (sense 1) was (erroneously) supposed by Berzelius, 1815, to be the oxide.
| 1819 J. G. Children Ess. Chem. Anal. §76 Oxide of Thorinium, or Thorina. 1820 Ure Dict. Chem., Thorinum, the supposed metallic basis of the preceding earth [thorina 1], not hitherto extracted. 1826 Henry Elem. Chem. I. 635 Thorinum. Nothing is known of the metallic base of this earth [thorina], and it is only from analogy that it is supposed to be constituted of such a base united with oxygen. |
2. The name given in France and England, for several years after 1828, to the metallic element thorium, q.v.
| 1836 Brande Chem. (ed. 4) 847 Thorinum..was discovered by Berzelius in 1828, in a rare and complex mineral, found in the Syenitic rock of the Isle of Lövon, near Brevig, in Norway. It contained about 58 per cent. of thorina. Ibid., By passing a current of dry chlorine over a mixture of thorina and charcoal-powder, a crystalline chloride of thorinum is obtained, which is easily decomposed by potassium, and the product is thorinum. It is of a gray colour, metallic lustre, and apparently malleable. 1873 Watts Fownes' Chem. (1877) I. 397 Thorinum forms but one class of compounds, in all of which it is quadrivalent. |