History Periodic table

Dimitri Mendeleev (1834 - 1907)

Dimitri Mendeleev was born in Tobolsk, Siberia the youngest of a family of seventeen. His father Ivan was the Headmaster of the local school, and his mother came from a well-known glass manufacturing company. Dimitri was educated at the local school, where he showed great interest in Physics and Chemistry. He was greatly influenced at this time by his brother-in-law Bessargen, who taught the young Mendeleev the science of glass manufacture and kept him informed about current scientific topics.

After his father died his mother decided that the young Dimitri should have the best education possible, she brought him to Moscow, and finally St Petersburg, were he was allowed to enrol as a student Science Teacher. He began his course in the autumn of 1850, sadly however within a few months his mother Marya and his sister had died from tubercolosis.

For his first two years in St Petersburg Dimitri made excellent progress, then he became suddenly very ill and was confined to his bed for a lengthy period of time. Many thought that he had fallen victim to the disease that had two years earlier claimed the lives of his mother and sister. Always a popular man Dimitri completed his studies thanks to the help of the staff and students from the University who visited him while he was sick and helped keep his work on schedule. Mendeleef was awarded an M.A. degree in 1856 followed by a Ph.D. in 1865.

Mendeleev became very interested in the work of John Dalton around 1805 and set himself about arranging the elements in order of their atomic weight. He wrote the symbols for the elements on cards and arranged them in rows. He was unsure what to do with Hydrogen so he left it on its own. His first row consisted of Li, Be B, C, N,O,F and Ne. When he began his next column he noticed that the properies of the elemends in each column were similar. But there were some gaps. Mendeleev suggested that these were elements not yet discovered. He left the gaps and continued his table.

Shortly afterwards the discovery of Gallium, Germanium and Scandium, whose properties he had predicted added to his stature in the scienific world.

It is worth noting that the modern periodic table is arranged in order of increasing Atomic Number.

Dimitri Mendeleev was not only a great scientist, he was a very principled man, who had a great desire for democracy. A desire which got him into a lot of trouble with the Russian Authorities. Mendeleev was a most colourful character who was popular with all that crossed his path. He was characterised by his enormous head of hair and long trailing beard. His Biographers claim that he had it cut once a year in the spring. A custom which he would not deviate from even when he had an audience with the Czar. His death from pneumonia in 1907 caused great mourning. It is said tht his students carried a copy of the Periodic Table ahead of the hearse.