Waldemar Lindgren described in 1924 a mineral present in nickel ores from southern Nevada which in colour, hardness, and stability differs from polydymite from Grüneau mine at Sehutzbach, between Betzdorf and Daaden in Rhenish Prussia, and yet matches so-called ferriferous polydymite from Vermilion mine, Sudbury, Ontario. He proposed the name violarite both for the mineral from Nevada and for the ‘polydymite’ from Ontario on account of the violet-grey colour of the mineral on polished sections. Lindgren assumed that the iron found in the first analysis of ‘polydymite’ from Ontario was due to admixture with pentlandite and thence deduced nickel disulphide as the possible composition of violarite. In the light of subsequent results it is relevant to mention that Lindgren and Davy's work was based upon the study of polished ore sections but not in polarized light.