Early Responses to the Periodic System

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Periodic System ◽  
Periodic Table ◽  
History Of Chemistry ◽  
System P ◽  
History Of ◽  
P Addition

addition to discussing the appropriation of the periodic system, the book examines meta-physical reflections of nature based on the periodic system outside the field of chemistry, and considers how far humans can push the categories of "response" and "reception." Early Responses to the Periodic System provides a compelling read for anyone with an interest in the history of chemistry and the Periodic Table of Elements.

When a Daring Chemistry Meets a Boring Chemistry: The Reception of Mendeleev’s Periodic System in Sweden

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Lundgren
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Periodic System ◽  
Initial Step ◽  
The Other ◽  
Experimental Science ◽  
History Of Chemistry ◽  
System P ◽  
History Of ◽  
Per Se

The reception of Mendeleev’s periodic system in Sweden was not a dramatic episode. The system was accepted almost without discussion, but at the same time with no exclamation marks or any other outbursts of enthusiasm. There are but a few weak short-lived critical remarks. That was all. I will argue that the acceptance of the system had no overwhelming effect on chemical practice in Sweden. At most, it strengthened its characteristics. It is actually possible to argue that chemistry in Sweden was more essential for the periodic system than the other way around. My results might therefore suggest that we perhaps have to reevaluate the role of Mendeleev’s system in the history of chemistry. Chemistry in Sweden at the end of the nineteenth century can be characterized as a classifying science, with chemists very skilled in analysis, and as mainly an atheoretical science, which treated theories at most only as hypothesis—the slogan of many chemists being “facts persist, theories vanish.” Thanks to these characteristics, by the end of the nineteenth century, chemistry in Sweden had developed into, it must be said, a rather boring chemistry. This is obviously not to say that it is boring to study such a chemistry. Rather, it gives us an example of how everyday science, a part of science too often neglected but a part that constitutes the bulk of all science done, is carried out. One purpose of this study is to see how a theory, considered to be important in the history of chemistry, influenced everyday science. One might ask what happened when a daring chemistry met a boring chemistry. What happened when a theory, which had been created by a chemist who has been described as “not a laboratory chemist,” met an atheoretical experimental science of hard laboratory work and, as was said, the establishment of facts? Furthermore, could we learn something about the role of the periodic system per se from the study of such a meeting? Mendeleev’s system has often been considered important for teaching, and his attempts to write a textbook are often taken as the initial step in the chain of thoughts that led to the periodic system.

Prediction and Accommodation: The Acceptance of Mendeleev’s Periodic System

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Scerri
Keyword(s):  
Periodic System ◽  
Periodic Table ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
The Other ◽  
Periodic Systems ◽  
Scientific Theories ◽  
Scientific Culture ◽  
System P ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

Although periodic systems were produced independently by six codiscoverers in the space of a decade, Dmitri Mendeleev’s system is the one that has had the greatest impact by far. Not only was Mendeleev’s system more complete than the others, but he also worked much harder and longer for its acceptance. He also went much further than the other codiscoverers in publicly demonstrating the validity of his system by using it to predict the existence of a number of hitherto unknown elements. According to the popular story, it was Mendeleev’s many successful predictions that were directly responsible for the widespread acceptance of the periodic system, while his competitors either failed to make predictions or did so in a rather feeble manner. Several of his predictions were indeed widely celebrated, especially those of the elements germanium, gallium, and scandium, and many historians have argued that it was such spectacular feats that assured the acceptance of Mendeleev’s periodic system by the scientific community. The notion that scientific theories are accepted primarily if they make successful predictions seems to be rather well ingrained into scientific culture, and the history of the periodic table has been one of the episodes through which this notion has been propagated. However, philosophers and some scientists have long debated the extent to which predictions influence the acceptance of scientific theories, and it is by no means a foregone conclusion that successful predictions are more telling than other factors. In looking closely at the bulk of Mendeleev’s predictions in this chapter, it becomes clear that, at best, only half of them proved to be correct. This raises a number of questions. First of all, why is it that history has been so kind to Mendeleev as a maker of predictions? As historian of chemistry William Brock has pointed out, “Not all of Mendeleev’s predictions had such a happy outcome; like astrologers’ failures, they are commonly forgotten.”

scholarly journals Possibilidades para o fazer docente junto ao aprendiz cego em aulas de Química: uma interface com a história da Tabela Periódica

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 181-199
Author(s):  
Jomara Mendes Fernandes ◽  
Sandra Franco-Patrocínio ◽  
Ivoni Freitas-Reis
Keyword(s):  
History Of Science ◽  
Periodic Table ◽  
Chemical Elements ◽  
Visual Impairments ◽  
Teaching Methodology ◽  
Right To Education ◽  
Disabled Students ◽  
History Of Chemistry ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right

ResumoAtualmente, pensar no acesso do aluno com deficiência em sala de aula se faz essencial uma vez que todos têm o direito à educação e de estar presente de forma real na sociedade. Falando especialmente do aluno cego, este requer uma metodologia de ensino condizente com suas limitações e que valorize sua potencialidade. Assim, o objetivo desse trabalho é divulgar a experiência da confecção de uma Tabela Periódica adaptada para o Braille e que foi trabalhada em aulas de química junto a dois estudantes cegos, valorizando a história da descoberta dos elementos químicos e de sua organização até a Tabela atual. A partir dos resultados advindos dessa experiência ressaltamos que os alunos com deficiência visual necessitam de recursos didáticos e adaptações curriculares específicos para que possam participar ativamente da construção de sua aprendizagem e, para tanto, as abordagens da História da Ciência se mostram essenciais nesse processo.Palavras-chave: Inclusão; cegos; história da química.AbstractCurrently, thinking about disabled students' access to the classroom is essential since everyone has the right to education and to be present in society. Especially about the blind student, this requires a teaching methodology that is consistent with its limitations and that values its potentiality. Thus, the objective of this work is to divulge the experience of producing a Periodic Table adapted for Braille and that was used in chemistry classes with two blind students, valuing the history of the discovery of the chemical elements and of their organization up to the current Table. Based on the results of this experience, we emphasize that students with visual impairments need didactic resources and specific curricular adaptations so that they can participate actively in the construction of their learning and for this, the approaches of the History of Science are essential in this process.Keywords : Inclusive; blind; history of chemistry.

Viatscheslaw Romanoff: unknown genius of the periodic system

2019 ◽  
Vol 91 (12) ◽  
pp. 1921-1928 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikhail Kurushkin
Keyword(s):  
Periodic System ◽  
Periodic Table ◽  
Precious Metal ◽  
Chemical Elements ◽  
Noble Gas ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Correct Placement ◽  
History Of ◽  
Actinide Series ◽  
And Chemical Properties

Abstract The history of chemistry has not once seen representations of the periodic system that have not received proper attention or recognition. The present paper is dedicated to a nearly unknown version of the periodic table published on the occasion of the centenary celebration of Mendeleev’s birth (1934) by V. Romanoff. His periodic table visually merges Werner’s and Janet’s periodic tables and it is essentially the spiral periodic system on a plane. In his 1934 paper, Romanoff was the first one to introduce the idea of the actinide series, a decade before Glenn T. Seaborg, the renowned creator of the actinide concept. As a consequence, another most outstanding thing about Romanoff’s paper occurs towards its very end: he essentially predicted the discovery of elements #106, #111 and #118. He theorized that, had uranium not been the “creative limit”, we would have met element #106, a “legal” member of group 6, element #111, a precious metal, “super-gold” and element #118, a noble gas. In 2019, we take it for granted that elements #106, #111 and #118 indeed exist and they are best known as seaborgium, roentgenium and oganesson. It is fair to say that Romanoff’s success with the prediction of correct placement and chemical properties of seaborgium, roentgenium and oganesson was only made possible due to the introduction of an early version of the actinide series that only had four elements at that time. Sadly, while Professor Romanoff was imprisoned (1938–1943), two new elements, neptunium (element #93) and plutonium (element #94) were discovered. While Professor Romanoff was in exile in Ufa (1943–1953), six further elements were added to the periodic table: americium (element #95), curium (element #96), berkelium (element #97), californium (element #98), einsteinium (element #99) and fermium (element #100). The next year after his death, in 1955, mendelevium (element #101), was discovered. Romanoff’s version of the periodic table is an unparalleled precursor to the contemporary periodic table, and is an example of extraordinary anticipation of the discovery of new chemical elements.

The First Publication of Mendeleev’s Periodic System of Elements

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 129-182
Author(s):  
Petr A. Druzhinin
Keyword(s):  
Periodic System ◽  
Periodic Table ◽  
Atomic Weight ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Chemical Affinity ◽  
Historical Archive ◽  
Russian State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Printed Materials

This study explores the full set of handwritten and printed materials associated with the 1869 publication of the first version of Dmitrii Mendeleev’s periodic system of elements: “An Attempt at a System of Elements Based on Their Atomic Weight and Chemical Affinity.” Using innovative historical research methods, the author has been able to refute the publication date traditionally associated with the first version of the periodic table, as well as to establish an accurate chronology of its subsequent publications. This task was made possible through the discovery of previously unknown handwritten materials in Mendeleev’s personal archive and the Russian State Historical Archive. This typographical analysis of the first publication of Mendeleev’s periodic table represents a rare and unusual opportunity in the history of science: it gives us the chance to observe how, in the process of publishing the results of a scientific study, a researcher comes to realize that what he has discovered is, in fact, a major scientific breakthrough and begins to take the necessary steps toward establishing his scientific priority.

The Electron and Chemical Periodicity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Scerri
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Periodic System ◽  
Atomic Structure ◽  
Periodic Table ◽  
Free Particle ◽  
History Of Physics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lothar Meyer ◽  
Deep Interest

J.J. Thomson’s discovery of the electron is one of the most celebrated events in the history of physics. What is not so well known is that Thomson had a deep interest in chemistry, which, among other things, motivated him to put forward the first explanation for the periodic table of elements in terms of electrons. Today, it is still generally believed that the electron holds the key to explaining the existence of the periodic table and the form it takes. This explanation has undergone a number of subtle changes. The extent to which the modern explanation is purely deductive or whether it is semiempirical is examined in this chapter. While Dmitri Mendeleev had remained strongly opposed to any attempts to reduce, or explain, the periodic table in terms of atomic structure, Julius Lothar Meyer was not so averse to reduction of the periodic system. The latter strongly believed in the existence of primary matter and also supported William Prout’s hypothesis. Lothar Meyer did not hesitate to draw curves through the numerical properties of atoms, whereas Mendeleev believed this to be a mistake, since it conflicted with his own belief in the individuality of the elements. This is how matters stood before the discovery of the electron, three years prior to the turn of the twentieth century. The atom’s existence was still very much a matter of dispute, and its substructure had not yet been discovered. There appeared to be no way of explaining the periodic system theoretically. Johnston Stoney first proposed the existence and name for the electron in 1891, although he did not believe that it existed as a free particle. Several researchers discovered the physical electron, including Emil Wiechert in Königsberg, who was the first to publish his findings. Because these early researchers did not seriously follow up on their results, it was left to the British physicist Thomson to capitalize upon and establish the initial observations.

Conclusion: What is Speculative Empiricism?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Didier Debaise
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Speculative Philosophy ◽  
System P ◽  
History Of ◽  
Selection Of

Process and Reality ends with a warning: ‘[t]he chief danger to philosophy is narrowness in the selection of evidence’ (PR, 337). Although this danger of narrowness might emerge from the ‘idiosyncrasies and timidities of particular authors, of particular social groups, of particular schools of thought, of particular epochs in the history of civilization’ (PR, 337), we should not be mistaken: it occurs within philosophy, in its activity, its method. And the fact that this issue arises at the end of Process and Reality reveals the ambition that has accompanied its composition: Whitehead has resisted this danger through the form and ambition of his speculative construction. The temptation of a narrowness in selection attempts to expel speculative philosophy at the same time as it haunts each part of its system.

A Well-Ordered Thing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Gordin
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Periodic Table ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Classic Work ◽  
Hot Air ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Time

Dmitrii Mendeleev (1834–1907) is a name we recognize, but perhaps only as the creator of the periodic table of elements. Generally, little else has been known about him. This book is an authoritative biography of Mendeleev that draws a multifaceted portrait of his life for the first time. As the book reveals, Mendeleev was not only a luminary in the history of science, he was also an astonishingly wide-ranging political and cultural figure. From his attack on Spiritualism to his failed voyage to the Arctic and his near-mythical hot-air balloon trip, this is the story of an extraordinary maverick. The ideals that shaped his work outside science also led Mendeleev to order the elements and, eventually, to engineer one of the most fascinating scientific developments of the nineteenth century. This book is a classic work that tells the story of one of the world's most important minds.

On the nature of chemistry

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric R. Scerri
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Recent History ◽  
History Of Chemistry ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
Fundamental Unity ◽  
The 19Th Century

<span>The very nature of chemistry presents us with a tension. A tension between the exhilaration of diversity of substances and forms on the one hand and the safety of fundamental unity on the other. Even just the recent history of chemistry has been al1 about this tension, from the debates about Prout's hypothesis as to whether there is a primary matter in the 19th century to the more recent speculations as to whether computers will enable us to virtually dispense with experimental chemistry.</span>

Drifting Through a Planetary System

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karel Schrijver
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Planetary System ◽  
System P ◽  
History Of ◽  
Or Team ◽  
Water Contents

This chapter describes how the first found exoplanets presented puzzles: they orbited where they should not have formed or where they could not have survived the death of their stars. The Solar System had its own puzzles to add: Mars is smaller than expected, while Venus, Earth, and Mars had more water—at least at one time—than could be understood. This chapter shows how astronomers worked through the combination of these puzzles: now we appreciate that planets can change their orbits, scatter water-bearing asteroids about, steal material from growing planets, or team up with other planets to stabilize their future. The special history of Jupiter and Saturn as a pair bringing both destruction and water to Earth emerged from the study of seventeenth-century resonant clocks, from the water contents of asteroids, and from experiments with supercomputers imposing the laws of physics on virtual worlds.

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