52 Tellurium

Detailed Technical Data

Compare at other websites:
www.webelements.com
Los Alamos National Labs
Royal Society of Chemistry
Isotope information
Minerals
Translations and Etymology
Science Fiction (Main Site)
Poetry (Main Site)

Home Display size: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Tellurium is my favorite element name because I once defused a brewing trademark problem by convincing a guy that "Tellurium" would be a better name than "Wolfram" for his planned software.
Reports Tryggvi:

I find it funny that you should have talked someone into using "Tellurium" for a trademark. Much of the chemistry of tellurium was only investigated after WWII, when "glove boxes" became commonly available. (Developed for handling nasty nuclear stuff). Tellurium is fairly toxic, but even sub-hazardous exposure will produce a BO so bad that friends and acquaintances will endeavor in staying far upwind from the hapless researcher. It may take weeks or months for the scent to go away.

Noted.

Small crystal, 99.999%.
Kindly donated by David Franco, who sent many elements after seeing the slashdot discussion, and this one after I sent him some Mathematica t-shirts.
This is a very fine shiny and very pure crystal.
Source: David Franco
Contributor: David Franco
Acquired: 11 June, 2002
Price: Donated
Size: 0.2"
Purity: 99.999%

Sample from the Red Green and Blue Company Element Set.
The Red Green and Blue company in England sells a very nice element collection in several versions. Max Whitby, the director of the company, very kindly donated a complete set to the periodic table table.

To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description or the company's website which includes many photographs and pricing details. I have two photographs of each sample from the set: One taken by me and one from the company. You can see photographs of all the samples displayed in a periodic table format: my pictures or their pictures. Or you can see both side-by-side with bigger pictures in numerical order.

The picture on the left was taken by me. Here is the company's version (there is some variation between sets, so the pictures sometimes show different variations of the samples):

Source: Max Whitby of The Red Green & Blue Company
Contributor: Max Whitby of The Red Green & Blue Company
Acquired: 25 January, 2003
Price: Donated
Size: 0.2"
Purity: 99.999%

Sample from the Everest Element Set.
Up until the early 1990's a company in Russia sold a periodic table collection with element samples. At some point their American distributor sold off the remaining stock to a man who is now selling them on eBay. The samples (excepted gasses) weight about 0.25 grams each, and the whole set comes in a very nice wooden box with a printed periodic table in the lid.

To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description and information about how to buy one, or you can see photographs of all the samples from the set displayed on my website in a periodic table layout or with bigger pictures in numerical order.

Source: Rob Accurso
Contributor: Rob Accurso
Acquired: 7 February, 2003
Price: Donated
Size: 0.2"
Purity: >99%

Native tellurium. (External Sample)
Natural mineral sample.
Location: The Harvard Museum of Natural History
Photographed: 2 October, 2002
Size: 4
Purity: >90%