9781422279519

Understanding the Periodic Table

began to notice patterns among the known elements. Working in the mid-1860s, he noticed that elements with atomic weights that differed by seven shared some similar properties. He called his findings The Law of Octaves, comparing it to the octaves of music. Newlands ar- ranged the elements into a table as well. He sometimes had to put two elements into one box to keep with the pattern he devised. He also had no gaps in his table, something that later arrangements had. When Mendeleev published his table of elements in 1869, New-

lands claimed that his was the first ta- ble of elements to be developed. The Chemical Society was not willing to support his claim, and his accomplish-

Newlands was honored by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

ment was not credited. In 1998, the Chemical So- ciety, under its new name The Royal Society of Chemistry, erected a plaque in Newlands’ honor

in London that reads “J.A.R. Newlands 1837–1898. Chemist and discoverer of the Period Law for the chemical el- ements was born and raised here.”

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