Who Invented the Periodic Table?
Question: Who Invented the Periodic Table? Do you know who described the first periodic table of the elements that ordered the elements by increasing atomic weight and according to trends in their properties? I'll give you a hint. It was not Dmitri Mendeleev. The actual inventor of the periodic table is someone rarely mentioned in chemistry history books. Answer: If you answered "Dmitri Mendeleev" then you might be incorrect. Dmitri Mendeleev presented his periodic table of the elements based on increasing atomic weight on March 6, 1869, in a presentation to the Russian Chemical Society. While Mendeleev's table was the first to gain some acceptance in the scientific community, it was not the first table of its kind. John Newlands had published his Law of Octaves in 1865. The Law of Octaves had two elements in one box and did not allow space for undiscovered elements, so it was criticized and did not gain recognition.