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World's Oldest Periodic Table Chart Found At University of St Andrews In Scotland (phys.org)

Posted by BeauHD on from the lost-and-found dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: A periodic table chart discovered at the University of St Andrews is thought to be the oldest in the world. The chart of elements, dating from 1885, was discovered in the University's School of Chemistry in 2014 by Dr. Alan Aitken during a clear out. The storage area was full of chemicals, equipment and laboratory paraphernalia that had accumulated since the opening of the chemistry department at its current location in 1968. Following months of clearing and sorting the various materials a stash of rolled up teaching charts was discovered. Within the collection was a large, extremely fragile periodic table that flaked upon handling. Suggestions that the discovery may be the earliest surviving example of a classroom periodic table in the world meant the document required urgent attention to be authenticated, repaired and restored.

Mendeleev made his famous disclosure on periodicity in 1869, the newly unearthed table was rather similar, but not identical to Mendeleev's second table of 1871. However, the St Andrews table was clearly an early specimen. The table is annotated in German, and an inscription at the bottom left -- "Verlag v. Lenoir & Forster, Wien" -- identifies a scientific printer who operated in Vienna between 1875 and 1888. Another inscription -- "Lith. von Ant. Hartinger & Sohn, Wien" -- identifies the chart's lithographer, who died in 1890. Working with the University's Special Collections team, the University sought advice from a series of international experts. Following further investigations, no earlier lecture chart of the table appears to exist. Professor Eric Scerri, an expert on the history of the periodic table based at the University of California, Los Angeles, dated the table to between 1879 and 1886 based on the represented elements. For example, both gallium and scandium, discovered in 1875 and 1879 respectively, are present, while germanium, discovered in 1886, is not.

11 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. A couple videos of this periodic table by complete+loony · · Score: 5, Informative

    This periodic table appeared on Objectivity, while it was being restored by paper conservator Richard Hawkes. Also discussed by Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff on Periodic Video's.

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    09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
  2. Periodic Table by tquasar · · Score: 2

    My high school chemistry teacher had a large version he displayed at the front of the class for the final exam. I got an A, most students couldn't read the table.

  3. Helium is missing = not that exact dating by DrTJ · · Score: 2

    He was discovered in 1868 by Norman Lockyer, which is 17 years prior to the stated date of this table. It should have made the table.

    That probably means that is hard to use the presence of a single element to exactly pin down the date. Germanium could be missing for the same reason Helium is, putting the date uncertainty back to 1879-1888, it would seem.

    1. Re:Helium is missing = not that exact dating by Sique · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you look more closely, any intert gas is missing, as Dmitry Mendeleev looked at hydrides and oxides to put the elements in the periodic table (Look at the table head!), and inert gases don't have hydrides and oxides. Thus he had to omit them.

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      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    2. Re:Helium is missing = not that exact dating by Tuidjy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Exactly. Helium is a noble gas, it does not easily react with anything, and if I remember my high school chemistry, this made it hard for physicists to place elements on the table, as they had no compounds (acids/oxides) to work with. Actually I just realized that I lack the vocabulary to talk about Chemistry in English.

      Anyway, I have not looked at the table yet, but I will be surprised to find any noble gases on it. Actually, I am being stupid, of course they won't be there, the ones after helium were discovered around the turn of the century.

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      No good deed goes unpunished...
    3. Re:Helium is missing = not that exact dating by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 4, Interesting

      In 1868 they only found it on the sun through its spectral line. Perhaps they didn't know enough about it to place it accurately on the periodic table?

      From the solar spectrogram was initially thought to be a metal, hence the -ium suffix. Its place on the Table was probably still controversial at the time this was printed.If He were being canonically named today, it would have been called helon.

  4. Periodic table my ass by dcooper_db9 · · Score: 2

    This is what you get when chemists play bingo

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    I do not block ads. I do block third party scripts.
    1. Re:Periodic table my ass by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

      This was at St. Andrews - the chemists we’re playing golf.

      Which explains the presence p, on this particular chart, of the so-called elements “mashie” and “niblick”.

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      #DeleteChrome
  5. Acrostic by sinktank · · Score: 2

    How HE LIkes BEer Beef & Cake!
    Now Obese Forms are NEver Nature’s MakinG.
    ALl of SImilar Plight
    Should C[L]onsider ARight
    Keeping CAre of the SCoops that they T[I]ake.

  6. Re:The oldest one? by jabuzz · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's the oldest one designed to be hung on the wall of a classroom, lab, lecture theater etc.

  7. Re:Slow news decade? by Shimbo · · Score: 2

    It's the International Year of the Periodic Table this year, so it's topical. http://www.rsc.org/iypt/