Indium Corporation is a materials refiner, smelter, manufacturer, and supplier to the global electronics, semiconductor, thin-film, and thermal management markets. Products include solders and fluxes; brazes; thermal interface materials; sputtering targets; indium, gallium, germanium, and tin metals and inorganic compounds; and NanoFoil. Founded in 1934 in Utica, New York, the company has global technical support and factories located in China, Germany, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.
History
In 1863, the element indium was discovered by Professor Ferdinand Reich (1799–1882) and his assistant Hieronymous Theodor Richter (1824–1898) while at the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology, Germany. Reich, who was color blind, asked Richter to examine a yellow precipitate from some local zinc ores. Spectrographic studies for thallium on the sample of sphaleritic ore revealed some undiscovered indigo-blue lines. That newly discovered element was named indium for the characteristic lines of its spectrum.
Other chemists began working with indium to identify its properties. In 1864, J. A. R. Newlands made an early prediction that "when the equivalent of indium is determined, it will be found to bear a simple relation to the elements of the group to which it will be assigned." R. E. Myer's work, as early as 1868, noted that when potassium cyanide is added to a solution of indium salt and boiled, the indium is precipitated out as the hydroxide, an early test that would lead to electrodepositing the metals many decades later.
Reich and Richter were meant to present an ingot of indium at The International Exposition of 1867 (the second World's Fair) in Paris, but, fearing its theft, they instead displayed an 0.5 kg ingot of lead.
Over the next 60 years, indium was considered a laboratory curiosity. "In 1924, an order was placed with a prominent New York chemical supply company for a substantial quantity of indium. After several months of correspondence with foreign sources, one gram of the metal was located and purchased, it being all that was then available in the world. It was valued at ten dollars a gram." In 1924, platinum was one of the most valuable metals at the time at $133.52 per ounce – the equivalent of $2,010.32 in 2021. Indium was 212 percent more valuable.
Dr. William S. Murray, Daniel Gray, and John Dyer, Jr.
Dr. William Stanley Murray (1887-1972) was born in Stillson Hill, Warren County, Pa., just across the New York state line from Chautauqua County, the westernmost county in New York. He was the son of George Campbell, who was engaged in the oil production business, and Armeina (Kay) Murray.
Dr. Murray matriculated at Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., studying chemistry under the tutelage of Profs. Dr. Joseph Frank McGregory (1855-1934) and Roy Burnett Smith (1875-1940). Dr. McGregory shared of his pupil: "He couldn't be kept within the confines of any course so we just gave him a laboratory desk and didn't bother him." "We just turned him loose to investigate, because he seemed happy to tackle new and untried problems." Dr. Murray graduated with a bachelor's of science degree in 1910. He joined the university's board of trustees in 1926, and on October 15, 1939, Dr. Murray was awarded a doctor of science from the university for his contributions in developing commercial uses of indium.
In 1910 Dr. Murray joined the Utica Pipe Foundry as a chemist. It was located at the corner of Broad Street and Dwyer Avenue in Utica, sharing the opposite corner block occupied by the Willoughby Factory. When the foundry went bankrupt in January 1914, Dr. Murray became a consulting chemist for Oneida Community. He also established his own firm, William S. Murray, Inc. – consulting engineers specializing in chemistry – which he used to render valuable assistance to other companies during World War I. The first financial backer of his new enterprise was Francis F. Despard, a Utica, N.Y. business person.
On June 28, 1913, Dr. Murray married Margaret A. Collins (1888-1965) in Buffalo, N.Y. Margaret was an active and prominent leader in women's organizations in Utica, and was a school teacher for several years. The couple had two children: George C. Murray (1917-1996) – a graduate of Colgate University and an employee at the Indium Corporation of America, and Margaret Kay Murray (1919-2003) – a graduate of Vassar College. Within a month of receiving her degree, Margaret was in charge of a laboratory for the Camden Wire Co., Inc. of Camden, N.Y., and joined her father as a consultant at William S. Murray, Inc. to provide technical assistance to many companies.
Daniel Gray (1889-1973) was born on November 1, 1889, in Chicago, Ill., the son of Christian N.E. Gray and Elizabeth Ann Olsen. Daniel attended James Millikin University, Decatur, Ill. In 1920, he wed Roberta Faith (1897-1977), and the couple had four children; three died in infancy.
John Robert Dyer, Jr., (1910-1982) was born on October 17, 1910, in Yardley, Pa., the second of three sons to John R., Sr. (1880-?) and Ella (Keebler) Dyer (1880-?). In 1923, he moved to and attended school in Clayville, N.Y. (now Sauquoit Valley) before transferring to Utica Free Academy (approximately 10 miles away) and graduating in 1928. On June 2, 1932, he graduated with a degree in "Chemistry, Dyeing, and Printing" from The Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art, Philadelphia, Pa. He served as vice-president of the school's class of 1931–1932. On February 3, 1940, he married Ruth Caroline Bailey in Utica. The couple had one son: John R. Dyer, III.
1920s In 1924, Dr. Murray and Gray – Oneida Community-affiliated employees (later named Oneida Limited) – began working independently, and at times together, to study indium in hopes of discovering ways to process and use it for a variety of solutions in everyday life. When they first looked into indium as a valuable stabilizing element, four elementary textbooks were examined. Only one of them listed the element, and it mentioned indium as being "'a member of the aluminum family' and dismissed the subject."
Dr. William Stanley Murray, director of research, and Technologist Daniel Gray soon began to research and devise multiple processes to alloy, electroplate, and electrodeposit with indium while working at the silver-plated flatware and hollow-ware manufacturer. Their first significant application of indium was a process to stabilize non-ferrous metals.
In 1926, with the global supply of indium in trace amounts, Dr. Murray worked diligently to identify indium in mines throughout North America. In cooperation with the technologic staff at the Salt Lake City, Utah, station of the Bureau of Mines, they conducted a search for a commercial source of indium. In one day, Dr. Murray and employees at Oneida Community spectroscopically studied thousands of samples of zinc, silver, gold, and lead ore, all resulting in no presence of indium. "But after much trial and error, Dr. Murray found that indium could be extracted commercially from zinc ore mined in Chloride, Ariz. – a one-time silver mining camp in Mohave County that is considered the oldest continuously inhabited mining town in the state – located just north of Kingman, Ariz." " … He and the Oneida Community began working with the Anaconda Mining Company of Great Falls, Mont., to secure commercial supplies of the metal." At one of its abandoned mines (now named Twentieth Century Mine / Big Boy Mine), on property owned by George A. Beebe, in the Cerbat Mining District near Kingman, Dr. Murray led the search and found indium in a viable quantity to be commercially produced. The property was purchased by Dr. Murray in 1926 and later transferred to Indium Corporation of America. Initially, the combined search effort by Dr. Murray, the Salt Lake City Bureau of Mines' staff, and Anaconda Mining Co. staff led to the discovery of 35,000 tons of indium-rich ore that was blocked out. In 1927, of 1,000 tons of zinc ore mined in Kingman, 250 ounces of indium was produced (0.78 percent).
Initial patent efforts by Dr. Murray were taken skeptically by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. "[Dr. Murray] found that officials there did not take him too seriously, commenting that it was not so important because there appeared to be so little indium available. Murray reached into a bag he was carrying and produced a chunk of indium the size of a small loaf of bread – valued then at many thousands of dollars. That settled the matter and the government officials quickly realized he knew what he was talking about." Between 1926 and 1934, either Drs. Murray or Gray were named on all U.S. patent applications applied for and issued related to indium: they co-authored four patent applications; additionally, Dr. Murray submitted four solo applications and Daniel submitted three. These include a process to produce tarnish-resisting silver and silver plate and a process to obtain indium and zinc from ore (1932). Richard Orcutt Bailey, also employed at Oneida Community during the time period of 1926–1934, was also listed as an inventor of a number of patents with Dr. Murray and Gray, a majority of them involving a method of producing tarnish-resisting silver and silver plate.
1930s Daniel Gray began work in 1932 on one of the first commercial uses for indium: adding it as a dental alloy. Small quantities of indium harden and strengthen a metal to which it is alloyed, and it increases tarnish and corrosion resistance. As an example, gold-indium alloys – when used in denture castings – are smooth, dense, lustrous, and highly resistant to discoloration. The addition of indium to dental-gold solders provides increased fluidity, improved tensile strength, and gives greater bonding qualities and exceptional durability.
On May 12, 1933, Dr. Murray delivered a lecture on indium to the Clarkson University Student Chapter of the AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers) in Potsdam, N.Y. During the lecture, he exhibited a piece of indium weighing 125 grams – valued at $1,250 in 1933 (approximately $26,250 in 2022). Several graduates of Clarkson University would join the Indium Corporation of America in the subsequent eight decades, including future company president and owner William N. Macartney, Jr., who graduated from the university in 1928.
"On March 13, 1934 – armed with a unique product, protected intellectual property, a proven research team, and a secure supply of raw material – Dr. Murray, the Oneida Community, and Anaconda Mining Company formed The Indium Corporation of America." Its management team included President Dr. William S. Murray, Vice President J. Robert Dyer, Jr., and Research Director Daniel Gray. The new business began operations in Dr. Murray's garage located at 805 Watson Place, Utica.
On Saturday, April 28, 1934, Gray attended the 65th general meeting of the Electrochemical Society in Asheville, N.C., of which he is a member, and presented the first published paper on indium: The Electrodeposition of Indium from Cyanide Solutions.
The first commercial customer of the Indium Corporation of America was Capt. R. V. Williams of Buffalo, head of the Williams Gold Refining Co., who purchased 0.5oz. of indium on July 21, 1934.