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Portrait of Dmitri Mendeleev

Science · Chemistry

Dmitri Mendeleev

1834–1907 · Russian

Chemistry (periodic classification of the elements)

Dmitri Mendeleev, born in Tobolsk in Siberia, created the periodic table of the elements in 1869 while writing his textbook Principles of Chemistry. He arranged the elements by atomic weight and chemical properties, boldly left gaps for undiscovered elements and predicted their properties, predictions confirmed by the discoveries of gallium, scandium and germanium. Element 101, mendelevium, is named after him.

How to spot them

  • ▸Periodic table (1869), with gaps for undiscovered elements
  • ▸Predicted eka-aluminium, eka-boron and eka-silicon (gallium, scandium, germanium)
  • ▸Born in Tobolsk, Siberia; professor at St Petersburg
  • ▸Element 101, mendelevium

Key discoveries & works

Periodic table of the elements with gaps for undiscovered elements (1869)

Elements ordered by atomic weight and grouped by recurring properties; presented to the Russian Chemical Society

Principles of Chemistry (Osnovy khimii) (1868–1871)

Textbook whose writing prompted his periodic system

Predictions of eka-aluminium, eka-boron and eka-silicon (1869–1871)

Confirmed by gallium (1875), scandium (1879) and germanium (1886)

Directorship of the Russian Chamber of Weights and Measures (1893)

Headed Russia's bureau of standards until his death

Key ideas

  • Periodic law: the properties of the elements are a periodic function of their atomic weights
  • Corrected some accepted atomic weights and occasionally swapped elements' order to fit their properties
  • A scientific classification should make testable predictions

Quick-fire facts

  • •Born in Tobolsk, Siberia, the youngest of a large family; his mother ran a glassworks
  • •Ill on the day, his periodic system was presented to the Russian Chemical Society in March 1869 by Nikolai Menshutkin
  • •Lothar Meyer developed a similar periodic classification independently; they shared the Royal Society's Davy Medal in 1882
  • •His doctoral dissertation (1865) was on combinations of alcohol and water, the root of the myth that he set the strength of vodka
  • •Narrowly missed the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1906, which went to Henri Moissan
  • •Element 101, mendelevium, was named after him in 1955
  • •Students carried a copy of the periodic table in his funeral procession

Drill it — 8 cards

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Sources