The periodic table is 150 years old – but it could have looked very different

Jan 9, 2019

Kyushu University professor Kosuke Morita, head of a team of scientists who discovered element 113, points to the superheavy synthetic element on a periodic table at a news conference at the RIKEN institute's research centre in Wako, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Image: REUTERS/ KYODO Kyodo

Mark Lorch

Senior Lecturer, University of Hull

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John Dalton’s element list. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Dimitry Mendeleev’s table complete with missing elements. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Today’s periodic table. Image: Offnfopt/Wikipedia

Have you read?

Heinrich Baumhauer’s spiral. Image: Reprinted (adapted) with permission from Types of graphic classifications of the elements. III. Spiral, helical, and miscellaneous charts, G. N. Quam, Mary Battell Quam. Copyright (1934) American Chemical Society.

Heinrich Werner’s modern incarnation. Image: Reprinted (adapted) with permission from Types of graphic classifications of the elements. I. Introduction and short tables, G. N. Quam, Mary Battell Quam. Copyright (1934) American Chemical Society.

Charles Janet’s left-step table. Image: Wikipedia, CC BY-SASettling on a design

3D ‘Mendeleev flower’ version of the table. Image: Тимохова Ольга/Wikipedia, CC BY-SA

The author’s underground map of the elements. Image: Mark Lorch,Author provided

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