jan 1, 1870 - Julius Lother Mayer
Description:
His first table contained just 28 elements, organised by their valency (how many other atoms they can combine with). These elements were almost entirely main group elements, but in 1868 he incorporated the transition metals in a much more developed table. This 1868 table listed the elements in order of atomic weight, with elements with the same valency arranged in vertical lines, strikingly similar to Mendeleev’s table. Unfortunately for Meyer, his work wasn’t published until 1870, a year after Mendeleev’s periodic table had been published. Even after 1870, Meyer and Mendeleev were still unaware of each other’s work, although Meyer later admitted that Mendeleev had published his version first.
Meyer did contribute to the development of the periodic table in another way though. He was the first person to recognise the periodic trends in the properties of elements, and the graph shows the pattern he saw in the atomic volume of an element plotted against its atomic weight.
Added to timeline:
History of the periodic table
This is the history of the periodic table. This is 100% accu...
Date:
