History Of The Periodic Table

By catiehalmarick
  • 331 BCE

    Aristotle

    Discovered the four element theory: earth, air, fire & water.
  • Period: to

    Antoine Lavoisier

    Wrote the first extensive list of elements containing 33 elements. He also distinguished between metals and non-metals.

  • Jöns Jakob Berzelius

    Developed a table of atomic weights.
    Introduced letters to symbolize elements.

  • Johann Döbereiner

    Developed 'triads', groups of 3 elements with similar properties.

  • John Newlands

    The known elements were arranged in order of atomic weights and observed similarities between the first and ninth elements, the second and tenth elements etc. He proposed the 'Law of Octaves'.

  • Lothar Meyer

    Compiled a Periodic Table of 56 elements based on the periodicity of properties such as molar volume when arranged in order of atomic weight.

  • Dmitri Mendeleev

    Produced a table based on atomic weights but arranged 'periodically' with elements with similar properties under each other. Gaps were left for elements that were unknown at that time and their properties predicted.

  • William Ramsay

    Discovered the Noble Gases.

  • Henry Moseley

    Determined the atomic number of each of the elements.
    He modified the 'Periodic Law' to read that the properties of the elements vary periodically with their atomic numbers.

  • Glenn Seaborg

    Synthesised transuranic elements (the elements after uranium in the periodic table)