A major corporate scandal broke out in London in 1916. It was over German control of monazite sands in the princely state of Tiruvitamkur, anglicized as Travancore, in British India. Travancore was home to one of the world’s largest monazite deposits. Monazite was a major source of thorium nitrate used in incandescent gas mantles for street lighting— a cheap alternative to electric ligh…