History of the periodic table

A collection of historic documents that led to the development of the modern periodic table (clockwise from top left) – Lavoisier's 'Table of Simple substances' (1789); de Chancourtois' 'Telluric Screw' (1862); Mendeleev's hand-written periodic table (1869); a modern periodic table (2016); 

 John Dalton's list of atomic weights & symbols. (1808)^[1]

The periodic table is an arrangement of the chemical elements and are organized on the basis of their atomic numbers, electron configurations and recurring chemical properties. Elements are presented in order of increasing atomic number. The standard form of the table consists of a grid of elements with rows called periods and columns called groups.


The history of the periodic table reflects over a century of growth in the understanding of chemical properties. The most important event in its history occurred in 1869, when the table was published by Dmitri Mendeleev,
^[2] who built upon earlier discoveries by scientists such as Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier and John Newlands, but who is nevertheless generally given sole credit for its development
.