The First Publication of Mendeleev’s Periodic System of Elements

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 129-182
Author(s):  
Petr A. Druzhinin

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.

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 63-93
Author(s):  
Amiran Urushadze

The article analyzes governmental debates on the functions, rights and privileges of the Armenian Catholicoi in the context of inter-institutional controversies. The author attempts to identify and analyze the most influential programmes for solving the “Echmiadzin issue” and their origins presenting at the same time certain aspects of political interaction between the Russian Empire and the Armenian Church as overlapping processes and related events. The history of relationships between Russian state and Armenian Church in XIX–XX centuries shows that different actors of the imperial politics had different ideas about the optimal model of cooperation with Echmiadzin. The divisions took place not only between the various departments (the Ministry of Internal Affairs versus the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), but also within them, where individual officials could hold “anti-departmental” views in each particular case. All this hindered administrative consolidation, slowed down the empire's response to important political challenges and dragged the imperial structures into protracted service-hierarchical confrontations. The “Etchmiadzin Question” and the governmental discussions around it show in part the administrative paralysis of the autocracy and the decompensation of the system of power in the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. The article employs a rich documentary base of archival materials from the collections of the Russian State Historical Archive. These materials are introduced into the scholarly discourse for the first time ever.


Author(s):  
Tatiana Feklova

The history of the Russian Magneto-Meteorological Observatory (RMMO) in Beijing has not been extensively researched. Sources for this information are Russian (the Russian State Historical Archive, Saint Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Academy of Sciences, Russian National Library) and Chinese (the First Historical Archive of Beijing, the Library of the Shanghai Zikavey Observatory) archives. These archival materials can be scientifically and methodologically analyzed. At the beginning of the 18th century, the Russian Orthodox Mission (ROM) was founded in the territory of Beijing. Existing until 1955, the ROM performed an important role in the development of Russian–Chinese relations. Russian scientists could only work in Beijing through the ROM due to China’s policy of fierce self-isolation. The ROM became the center of Chinese academic studies and the first training school for Russian sinologists. From its very beginning, it was considered not only a church or diplomatic mission but a research center in close cooperation with the Russian Academy of Sciences. In this context, the RMMO made important weather investigations in China and the Far East in the 19th century. The RMMO, as well as its branch stations in China and Mongolia, part of a scientific network, represented an important link between Europe and Asia and was probably the largest geographical scientific network in the world at that time.


2020 ◽  
pp. 627-639
Author(s):  
Albina Ya. Ilyasova ◽  

The article presents the results of the source studies analyses of the alphabetical lists of confirmed and ascribed nobles of the Ufa and Orenburg gubernias from the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA). Imperially approved opinion of the State Council of the Russian Empire (January 2, 1861) ordered national noble assemblies to send annually to the Department of Heraldry of the Governing Senate “alphabetical lists of noble families during the year confirmed in their nobility by the Governing Senate” and “similar lists of those families, to which, in the course of the year, were attached some individuals.” Most of these lists are preserved in the materials of the “Third Department of the Senate” fond of the Russian State Historical Archive. The archives holds original copies of 39 reports and 65 lists, including 28 lists of confirmed nobles, and 37 — of ascribed, which were sent to the to the Department of Heraldry of the Governing Senate by the Orenburg Noble Assembly in 1862-1917; and 48 reports and 89 lists, including 41 of confirmed nobles and 48 — of ascribed, which were sent to the Department of Heraldry by the Ufa Noble Assembly in 1866-1917. These documents are written on plain paper on both sides of the sheet sized 22.2 (width) * 35.4 (height) cm. Most are handwritten. Reports of the Ufa Noble Assembly became typewritten from 1899 on, those of the Noble Orenburg Assembly — since 1911; lists of Ufa Noble Assembly became typewritten from 1897 on, of the Orenburg Noble Assembly — from 1908 on. The lists have a title page. Information about the nobles is given in tabular form. A list of confirmed nobles contains the following information: surname, name, patronymic of the person confirmed in hereditary nobility; date of the resolution of the Noble Assembly on declaring them a noble; part of the genealogical book, in which that person was entered; the date of receipt of documents for consideration in the Department of Heraldry; date and number of the confirming decree of Department of the Heraldry. The list of ascribed nobles includes such data as: surname, name, patronymic of the person added to the nobility; the date of the resolution of the Noble Assembly to ascribe the person to a noble family, confirmed by the Department of Heraldry; name, date, and document number(s) on the basis of which they were ascribed; part of the genealogical book, in which the family was entered; date and number of the decree of the Department of Heraldry of the Governing Senate confirming the family to rank among the nobility. The list was to be certified by signatures of the gubernia marshal of nobility, or those acting in that position, and by the secretary of the Noble Assembly. The list was not sealed. These documents are unique and quite valuable written sources on the history of the Russian nobility.


Author(s):  
Ivan B. Mironov

The refusal of Russia from its territory in Alaska is presented to this day as a goodwill gesture for the peace and consent with USA. The fragments of the documents stored in the archive of foreign policy of the Russian Empire, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, in the Russian State Historical Archive, in the State Archive of the Russian Federation, in the research department of manuscripts of the Russian State Library, reveal the true reasons for the taken decisions. New facts for scientific use and previously unknown documents are introduced.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (12-2) ◽  
pp. 215-222
Author(s):  
Bakhtiyor Alimdjanov ◽  
Shokhrukh Choriev ◽  
Timur Ivanov

In the article, on the basis of documents of the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA) that have not been previously introduced into scientific circulation, the activities of N. I. Ivanov, a famous merchant of the second half of the 19th century in the Turkestan General Government, which became rich on military supplies to the Russian army during the period of conquests in Central Asia is given. For the first time in Russian historiography, the functioning of the Central Asian Commercial Bank (1881-1911) - the first commercial bank in Russian Turkestan, founded by N. I. Ivanov. The activity of private financial institutions in Central Asia is analyzed.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
А.А. Логунова

Статья продолжает тему, начатую документальной публикацией автора в журнале Opera musicologica № 4 (42) / 2019, и освещает малоизвестные факты из истории взаимоотношений Россини с подданными Российской империи в период с 1817 по 1865 год. Источниками информации послужили материалы из следующих хранилищ: Российский государственный исторический архив, Российская национальная библиотека, Государственный архив Российской Федерации, Российский национальный музей музыки, Санкт-Петербургский государственный музей театрального и музыкального искусства, Российский государственный архив литературы и искусства. В статье подробно комментируются два письма Россини к И. М. Толстому, придворному из окружения Александра II, свидетельствующие о продолжительных дружеских отношениях композитора с влиятельным российским чиновником. Среди рекомендательных писем Россини особенно интересны послания 1860 года — к Т. Рикорди и Дж. Боноле, в которых идет речь о молодом русском певце, будущем режиссере А. Д. Гарфильд-Дмитриеве. Представленные в настоящей статье документы — шесть писем и музыкальный автограф для альбома М. Я. Раппапорта — не только открывают новую страницу в истории русских контактов Россини, но содержат малоизученные факты, касающиеся биографии композитора и его итальянских связей. Большинство автографов публикуются впервые. The article continues the documentary publication in the Opera musicologica, no. 4 (2019) and deals with unknown facts from the history of relations between Rossini and subjects of the Russian Empire on the basis of the materials from the Russian State Historical Archive, the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the Russian National Museum of Music, the National Library of Russia, the St. Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music, the Russian State Literature and Arts Archive. The main attention is paid to letters by Rossini to Ivan M. Tolstoy, testifying to the composer’s long-term friendly relations with the influential Russian official from the entourage of Alexander II. Among Rossini’s letters of recommendation, messages to Tito Ricordi and Giovanni Bonola about a Russian singer Aleksandr Dmitriev are of particular interest. Six letters and a musical autograph presented in this article not only open a new page in the history of Rossini’s Russian contacts, but also contain little-studied facts concerning the composer’s biography and his Italian connections. Most autographs are published for the first time.


Author(s):  
Eric Scerri

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.”


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 196-202
Author(s):  
U.V. Ezhelya ◽  

The article discusses the main milestones of cooperation between the two states – the USSR / Russia and China from the middle of the 20th century to the present. The author cites a number of printed periodicals as sources of information on the development of bilateral relations at different time periods. The dynamics of relations is traced against the backdrop of changing internal and external conditions for the development and interaction of countries: first in the format of socialist ideology (the 50s – the first half of the 60s and in the 80s of the 20th century), then against the background of new realities life of the Russian state and China (90s of the XX century and in the present). The magazines Zheleznodorozhny Transport, Zheleznodorozhnye dorogi mira (printed materials of the Ministry of Railways), departmental regional newspapers Pogranichny transportnik, Dzerzhinets are an interesting source of information about the events and problems of Soviet-Chinese relations, their prospects and successes. The author refers to the latest sources of socio-political and socio-economic information on international cooperation - electronic resources. The author introduces museum sources into circulation as examples of the policy of "popular diplomacy".


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.


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