GoKlean Celebrates the Periodic Table

Did you know that February 7th is National Periodic Table Day?  Unless you teach chemistry you probably don't think a lot about the periodic table, its history, or appreciation for it.  The person behind the day to honor the periodic table is a chemistry teacher from Kentucky, Mr. David T. Steinecker.

Curious now, aren't you?  Read on as GoKlean simplifies National Periodic Table Day and the history of the periodic table.

Mr. Steinecker began www.periodictable.org with the mission of developing an unofficial National Periodic Table Day on February 7 in honor of John Newland, Dmitri Mendeleev and all the others who contributed to the understanding of chemistry we all benefit from today (whether we understand it or not).

Attempts at making a periodic table began as early as 1817, when John Dobereiner, a German chemist, tried to organize elements into groups of three based on similar properties.  But this and other attempts were flawed and did not hold up to scrutiny.

It was not until 1863 when John Newland, an English chemist, published a paper on February 7, 1863 (note the date February 7th), which classified 56 elements known at the time into 11 groups based upon similar physical properties.  He noted that many pairs of similar elements existed, which differed in atomic weight by multiples of 8, something he called the 'law of octaves.'  He was able to correctly predict the discovery of elements unknown at the time using his 'law of octaves.'

Newland's work as well as the work of other prominent chemists of the day around the world led to the publication of the first periodic table of elements in 1869 by Dmitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist (the spelling of his name in English varies by source).  This table is much like that one still used today; Mendeleev arranged the elements by atomic mass.  Interestingly, Mendeleev was also born in February.

Others drew up periodic tables around the same time, but all were flawed in some way.  Mendeleev's version of the period table accurately noted that some then-accepted atomic weights were incorrect, provided variance from solely relying on atomic weight for order, predicted the discovery of other elements, and even left room for them on his version of the periodic table.  (Note:  Mendeleev's periodic table of elements did not include noble gases, but don't judge him too harshly, as they had not yet been discovered.)

Finally in 1913, Henry Moseley, an English physicist, noticed a relationship between an element's X-ray wavelength and its atomic number. (Prior to this, atomic numbers were just random numbers based on an element's atomic weight.) Moseley's discovery showed that atomic numbers were not arbitrary, rather instead had an experimentally measurable basis.  (Moseley's research also showed that there were gaps in the table at atomic numbers 43 and 61 which are now known to be radioactive and not naturally occurring.) Following in the footsteps of John Newland and Dmitri Mendeleev, Henry Moseley also predicted new elements that would eventually be discovered.

Whew!  That's a lot to get that nifty multicolored chart that tortured some of us in school whilst completely fascinating others of us.

Here at GoKlean, our team is amongst the group completely fascinated by the periodic table of elements and more importantly for you, how those elements interact.  It's a good thing too because without it and our love of chemistry, our products couldn't be the high quality, affordable, effective products they are.

Facts from: www.britanica.com, www.academickids.com, and www.wikipedia.com.