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Periodic Table Turns 150 Years Old (economist.com)
The Economist tells the story of how French chemist Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier came to publish the first putatively comprehensive list of chemical elements -- substances incapable of being broken down by chemical reactions into other substances -- known today as the periodic table. It was Lavoisier and his wife Marie-Anne who pioneered the technique of measuring quantitatively what went into and came out of a chemical reaction, as a way of getting to the heart of what such a reaction really is. "Where the story of the periodic table of the elements really starts is debatable," reports The Economist, "but Lavoisier's laboratory is as good a place as any to begin..." Here's an excerpt from the report: Lavoisier's list of elements, published in 1789, five years before his execution, had 33 entries. Of those, 23 -- a fifth of the total now recognized -- have stood the test of time. Some, like gold, iron and sulphur, had been known since ancient days. Others, like manganese, molybdenum and tungsten, were recent discoveries. What the list did not have was a structure. It was, avant la lettre, a stamp collection. But the album was missing.
Creating that album, filling it and understanding why it is the way it is took a century and a half. It is now, though, a familiar feature of every high-school science laboratory. Its rows and columns of rectangles, each containing a one- or two-letter abbreviation of the name of an element, together with its sequential atomic number, represent an order and underlying structure to the universe that would have astonished Lavoisier. It is little exaggeration to say that almost everything in modern science is connected, usually at only one or two removes, to the periodic table.
Creating that album, filling it and understanding why it is the way it is took a century and a half. It is now, though, a familiar feature of every high-school science laboratory. Its rows and columns of rectangles, each containing a one- or two-letter abbreviation of the name of an element, together with its sequential atomic number, represent an order and underlying structure to the universe that would have astonished Lavoisier. It is little exaggeration to say that almost everything in modern science is connected, usually at only one or two removes, to the periodic table.
in Russia, and then republished in Germany the next year. The "table" of Lavoisier was a much simpler affair, which was pretty far from what a "periodic table" is. It had "elements" in it like "fire", "light", "caloric" and complex molecules.
But let's forget the science and go for the propaganda.
Sure, the "moron" debunked the wildly popular phlogiston theory and discovered hydrogen and oxygen. He put chemistry on its way to uncovering the nature of specific gravity with his focus on weights and gases, at a time when one was unorthodox and the other virtually unknown.
He did all of this prior to America becoming a nation, before anything faster than a horse carriage was available to share ideas over land.
But sure, he's a "moron" according to people like who know nothing of history or science.
Celebrating the latter as the creator of the periodic table just because he made a table of sorts is beyond ridiculous.
Yeah it would if anyone did that.
But then, it is the Economist, which is hardly famous for the scientific education of its authors.
RAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGEEEE!!!
Since you haven't read TFA, let me inform you that your rage is misplaced. You could read it, or simply redirect your rage elsewhere.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
The fucking summary doesn't do a good job of summarizing the article. The article is 34 paragraphs long, 15 of which are devoted to Mendeleev.
And thanks to your prejudice, you've missed out on what's actually a really good summary of the history of the periodic table.