Brief History of the Development of the Periodic Table
During the 19th century many chemists tried to classify elements according to their characteristics.
- Johann Döbereiner (1780-1849) found the Law of Triads by observing atomic mass and chemical properties
- A.E. Beguyer de Chancourtois (1820-1886), who should be credited as first to create a periodic table, ordered elements on a cylinder according to atomic weight
- John Newlands (1837-1898) found the Law of Octaves by observing atomic weight and physical properties
- Lothar Meyer (1835-1895) created a table of 28 elements according to atomic weight and valencies
- Dimitri Mendeleev (1834-1907), in 1869, was the first to publish a classification of elements that became widely accepted, and his work is the basis of the periodic table that we use today
- Moseley suggested that the elements be ordered in increasing atomic number, instead of atomic mass