thomsonite Min.
(ˈtɒmsənaɪt)
[Named, 1820, after Dr. Thomas Thomson (1773–1852), professor of chemistry at Glasgow: see -ite1.]
Hydrous silicate of aluminium, calcium, and sodium, found often in fibrous radiated masses, white to reddish-brown in colour; = comptonite.
| 1820 H. J. Brooke in Ann. Philos. Sept. 193, I shall call the Auvergne variety, Mesotype; that from Iceland and Ferro, Needlestone; and that from Dumbarton, Thomsonite, after the editor of this journal [Dr. T. Thomson]. 1843 Portlock Geol. 215 Thomsonite..is rarely met in Irish trap. 1869 Phillips Vesuv. x. 294 Thomsonite, or Comptonite [occurs] in ejected blocks of gray lava. |