Topic > The Incredible History of the Periodic Table

The periodic table has an incredibly vast history of development, requiring the hard work of many scientific geniuses around the world. Its creation is also linked to the discovery of chemical elements. The first person to discover a new element was Hennig Brand, a bankrupt German merchant. Hennig Brand tried to replicate the mythical Philosopher's Stone, an object that was supposed to turn ordinary base metals into gold. In 1649 he experimented with distilled human urine, producing a bright white substance he called phosphorus. He kept his discovery secret until Robert Boyle rediscovered phosphorus in 1680. In 1661, Robert Boyle also defined an element as "a substance which cannot be broken down into a simpler substance by a chemical reaction." That explanation served for three centuries and lasted until the discovery of subatomic particles. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier, a French scientist wrote the "Elementary Treatise on Chemistry". It is considered the first modern chemistry textbook that included a list of substances that Lavoisier believed could not be broken down further. In 1817, Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner began trying to formulate one of the first attempts to classify the elements. In 1829 he discovered that he could form some elements into groups of three. With elements in each group having related properties. He called these groups triads. The definition of the triad law is: “Chemically analogous elements arranged in increasing order with respect to their atomic weight form well-marked groups of three called Triads in which it is found that the atomic weight of the central element is generally the arithmetic mean of the atomic weight of the 'central element'. two other elements in the triad." In 1862, a French geologist, Alexandre-Emile Béguyer de Chancourtois devised an early form of periodic table, which he called "telluric helix", from the name of the element tellurium. With the elements arranged in a spiral on a cylinder in order of increasing atomic weight. Using this table, Alexander-Emile Béguyer de Chancourtois saw that elements with similar properties were aligned vertically. 1864, the English chemist John Newlands classified the sixty-two known elements into eight groups (the law of octaves). ), based on their physical properties. John Newlands discovered that there were many pairs of similar elements. Although they differed by multiples of eight, John Newlands was also the first to assign them an atomic number Russian, was the first scientist to produce a periodic table similar to the one used today. Dmitri Mendeleev arranged the elements according to their atomic mass. Dmitri Mendeleev stated in a presentation that:1 The elements, if arranged according to their atomic mass , show an apparent periodicity of properties.2 Elements that are similar with respect to their chemical properties have atomic weights that are nearly the same value ( (e.g. Pt, Ir, Os) or which increase regularly (e.g. K, Rb, Cs).3 The arrangement of the elements, or groups of elements in the order of their atomic masses, corresponds to their so-called valences, just as, in a to some extent, to their distinctive chemical properties; as is evident among other series in that of Li, Be, B, C, N, O, and F.4 The most widespread elements have small atomic weights.5 The magnitude of the atomic weight determines the character of the element, just as the magnitude of the molecule determines the character of a composite body.6 We must expect the discovery of many still unknown elements – for example, elements analogous to aluminum and silicon – whose atomic weight would be between 65 and 75.7 the weight of a.