Periodic law and periodic table
Ley periódica y tabla periódica de los elementos
- Date
- 1869 · confidence high
- Place
- Saint Petersburg, Russia
- Credited to
- Dmitri Mendeleev; independently Lothar Meyer (Tübingen, 1870)
- People
- 👤 Dmitri Mendeléyev1834–1907
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
The properties of the elements are a periodic function of their atomic weight. Mendeleev leaves gaps and predicts the properties of gallium, scandium and germanium, confirmed in 1875-1886, which established the table.
Meyer published an almost equivalent table in 1870; the Royal Society awarded both the Davy Medal in 1882. Merged with 'Periodic table of the elements' (duplicate, 23-09-2026).
What it led to
- Prediction of elements
- Electronic structure of the atom
- Systematic inorganic chemistry
- Directed discovery of new elements
- Atomic theory and electronic structure (20th century)
- Systematic teaching of chemistry
- Rational industrial chemistry
Built on
- Consistent atomic weights (Cannizzaro, Karlsruhe Congress)1860
- Cannizzaro's atomic weights
- Newlands's law of octaves (1865)
- Dobereiner's triads (1829)
- Chancourtois's telluric screw (1862)
- Cannizzaro's atomic weights (Karlsruhe Congress, 1860)
- Döbereiner's triads
Made possible
- Germanium1886
- Bohr model of the atom1913
- Technetium1937
- directed search for elements
- materials by periodic analogy
- Discovery of gallium (1875) and germanium (1886)
- Quantum chemistry