Reference
- DMITRY MENDELEYEV (b. 1834–d. 1907)The periodic table of the elements used in chemistry was devised by the Russian scientist Dmitry Mendeleyev (also spelled Dmitri Mendeleev). His final version of the table in 1871 left gaps, suggesting that other elements would later be discovered. He also predicted the characteristics of these unknown elements.
Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev was born in Tobolsk, Siberia, on February 8, 1834. After his father's blindness and death in 1847, his mother operated a glass factory. When the factory was destroyed by fire, the family moved to Moscow and later to St. Petersburg, where Dmitry attended the Pedagogical Institute. He qualified as a teacher in 1855 and was sent south to Odessa to continue studies in chemistry. He received his first university post in 1857 and was sent to the University of Heidelberg (1859–61) for further study. Once back in St. Petersburg he took up editing and scientific writing. He became a professor of chemistry at the Technical Institute in 1864. His textbook, The Principles of Chemistry, was published in 1868–70...
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Perspectives
A Well-Ordered Thing
Dmitrii Mendeleev (1834-1907) is a name we recognize, but perhaps only as the creator of the periodic table of elements. Generally, little else has been known about him. A Well-Ordered Thing is an authoritative biography of Mendeleev that draws a multifaceted portrait of his life for the first time. As Michael Gordin reveals, Mendeleev was not only a luminary in the history of science, he was also an astonishingly wide-ranging political and cultural figure. From his attack on Spiritualism to his failed voyage to the Arctic and his near-mythical hot-air balloon trip, this is the story of an extraordinary maverick. The ideals that shaped his work outside science also led Mendeleev to order the elements and, eventually, to engineer one of the most fascinating scientific developments of the nineteenth century. A Well-Ordered Thing is a classic work that tells the story of one of the world's most important minds.
Early Responses to the Periodic System
The reception of the periodic system of elements has received little attention among scientists and historians alike. While many historians have studied Mendeleev's discovery of the periodic system, few have analyzed the ways in which the scientific community perceived and employed it. American historian of science Stephen G. Brush concluded that the periodic law had been generally accepted in the United States and Britain, and has suggested the need to extend this study to other countries.In Early Responses to the Periodic System, renowned historians of science Masanori Kaji, Helge Kragh, and Gábor Palló present the first major comparative analysis on the reception, response, and appropriation of the periodic system of elements among different nation-states. This book examines the history of its pedagogy and popularization in scientific communities, educational sectors, and popular culture from the 1970s to the 1920s. Fifteen notable historians of science explore the impact of Mendeleev's discovery in eleven countries (and one region) central to chemical research, including Russia, Germany, the Czech lands, and Japan, one of the few nation-states outside the Western world to participate in the nineteenth-century scientific research.The collection, organized by nation-state, explores how local actors regarded the new discovery as law, classification, or theoretical interpretation. In addition to discussing the appropriation of the periodic system, the book examines meta-physical reflections of nature based on the periodic system outside the field of chemistry, and considers how far humans can push the categories of "response" and "reception." Early Responses to the Periodic System provides a compelling read for anyone with an interest in the history of chemistry and the Periodic Table of Elements.
The Periodic Table
The periodic table is one of the most potent icons in science. It lies at the core of chemistry and embodies the most fundamental principles of the field. The one definitive text on the development of the periodic table by van Spronsen (1969), has been out of print for a considerable time. The present book provides a successor to van Spronsen, but goes further in giving an evaluation of the extent to which modern physics has, or has not, explained the periodic system. The book is written in a lively style to appeal to experts and interested lay-persons alike. The Periodic Table begins with an overview of the importance of the periodic table and of the elements and it examines the manner in which the term 'element' has been interpreted by chemists and philosophers. The book then turns to a systematic account of the early developments that led to the classification of the elements including the work of Lavoisier, Boyle and Dalton and Cannizzaro. The precursors to the periodic system, like Döbereiner and Gmelin, are discussed. In chapter 3 the discovery of the periodic system by six independent scientists is examined in detail. Two chapters are devoted to the discoveries of Mendeleev, the leading discoverer, including his predictions of new elements and his accommodation of already existing elements. Chapters 6 and 7 consider the impact of physics including the discoveries of radioactivity and isotopy and successive theories of the electron including Bohr's quantum theoretical approach. Chapter 8 discusses the response to the new physical theories by chemists such as Lewis and Bury who were able to draw on detailed chemical knowledge to correct some of the early electronic configurations published by Bohr and others. Chapter 9 provides a critical analysis of the extent to which modern quantum mechanics is, or is not, able to explain the periodic system from first principles. Finally, chapter 10 considers the way that the elements evolved following the Big Bang and in the interior of stars. The book closes with an examination of further chemical aspects including lesser known trends within the periodic system such as the knight's move relationship and secondary periodicity, as well at attempts to explain such trends.
Dmitri Mendeleev: Russian Leonardo da Vinci
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Prof. Eugene V. Babaev, the leading expert on Mendeleev, gives a tour of Mendeleev's St. Petersburg apartment which has been meticulously preserved. Within are thousands of volumes written by Mendeleev along with original drafts of the periodic table.
Mendeleev: Numerical Pattern Underlying the Structure of Matter.
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowThe periodic table reveals the relationships between each element in order. The elements represented on the periodic table are vertically grouped by families of similar properties, and horizontally by atomic weight.
The Amazing Periodic Table
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Investigate an astonishingly powerful scientific tool: the periodic table of the elements. Delve into the insights that led Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev to construct the first modern version of the table in the 1860s, and explore the world of information it contains.
Online Resources
- Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1907) - Creator of the greatest table of elements.Dmitri Mendeleev, born in Tobolsk Siberia, Russia in 1834, is one of the legends of chemistry. The periodic table that he published in 1869 was the first successful effort to organize the then known elements in the form of a table. The periodic table of elements is considered to be the most important man-made table. It is most appropriate that we recount life story of the great man who was responsible for this table. His life was one of agony and ecstasy. He overcame a traumatic period of poverty and tragedies and rose to become one of the greatest chemists of all time. His two defining characteristics were love for teaching and love for his countrymen. He had a larger than life personality and lived life on his terms.
- Year of the periodic table: Mendeleev and the othersOn the occasion of the Year of the Periodic Table of the Elements, the authors look back at the original discovery, its simultaneity and the difficulties of the discoverers in their own countries, the missing Nobel recognition for this discovery, and the abundance of memorials honoring Mendeleev in Russia and elsewhere.
- The Value of Completeness: How Mendeleev Used His Periodic System to Make PredictionsDmitrii Mendeleev’s periodic system is known for its predictive accuracy, but talk of its completeness is rarer. This is surprising because completeness (polnost’) was a quality that Mendeleev saw as important for a systematization of the chemical elements. Here, I explain how Mendeleev’s valuing of completeness influenced the development of his periodic system. After introducing five indicators of its completeness, I zoom into one in particular: Mendeleev’s inclusion of a schematic row of oxides. I then show how it guided Mendeleev’s predictions of indium and ekaboron, which suggests that the valuing of completeness was instrumental for making predictions.
- Paper tools and periodic tables: Newlands and Mendeleev draw gridsThis essay elaborates on Ursula Klein’s methodological concept of “paper tools” by drawing on several examples from the history of the periodic table. Moving from John A. R. Newlands’s “Law of Octaves,” to Dmitrii Mendeleev’s first drafts of his periodic system in 1869, to Mendeleev’s chemical speculations on the place of the ether within his classification, one sees that the ways in which the scientists presented the balance between empirical data and theoretical manipulation proved crucial for the chemical community’s acceptance or rejection of their proposed innovations. This negotiated balance illustrates an underemphasised feature of Klein’s conceptualisation of the ways in which a paper tool generates new knowledge.