Download This PaperThe Discovery of the Periodic Table
10 Pages Posted: 25 Oct 2016 Last revised: 28 Nov 2016
Date Written: October 24, 2016
Abstract
This paper was written in order to investigate the order of discoveries made in chemistry leading up to the discovery of the periodic table. New experimental techniques such as the pneumatic trough, voltaic piles, spectroscopy and potassium analysis led to the discovery of many new elements and their properties which enabled the discovery of the periodic table. The discoveries led to the demise of the classical theory of the elements, to the end of the phlogiston theory and to the creation of the modern ideas of the elements and of the atomic theory. The paper shows the discoveries were made in a necessary and inevitable order with new experimental techniques leading to the discovery of new elements which eventually led to the discovery of the periodic table.
Keywords: history of chemistry, periodic table, phlogiston theory, chemical revolution, discovery of elements, Carl Scheele, discovery of oxygen, pneumatic trough, Lavoisier, conservation of mass, Dalton, atomic theory, Avogadro, Mendeleev, Fraunhofer lines
JEL Classification: A00
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation