“Nature is our kindest friend and best critic in experimental science if we only allow her intimations to fall unbiased on our minds” -Michael Faraday Knowledge of science is an ever-growing tree as it never stops and advancements are always made. The scientific revolution is an example of a period of major growth in scientific advancements, starting at the end of the Renaissance and ending near the late 18 century. However, the expansion of scientific knowledge did not stop at the end of the scientific revolution. There were many scientific discoveries in the 19th century contributing to the understanding of physics and chemistry. Scientific discoveries in the 1800s greatly improved on the existing knowledge of physics and chemistry such …show more content…
The first attempt at classifying elements into groups was done by Johann Döbereiner. In the early 19th century, Johann Döbereiner observed a little pattern in atomic weights and element’s properties and would put elements in groups of three elements, naming them triads. The three examples Döbereiner used was groups of “chlorine, bromine, and iodine, “calcium, strontium, and barium,” and “sulphur, selenium, and tellurium.” The middle element would have a halfway atomic number of the two other elements. Unfortunately, Döbereiner was only able to find these triads, which many were unimpressed by. After Döbereiner attempted to find a pattern, John Newlands took an interest in classifying elements. John Newlands “arranged the elements in order of their increasing atomic weights and found that if he wrote them in horizontal rows, and started a new row with every eighth element, similar elements tended to fall in the same vertical columns.” (Source 2) The Law of Octaves was used by Newland when classifying the elements. Newlands’ organization gives more evidence that atomic weight has a correlation in element’s properties. Newlands table brought the basic formation to organizing elements, but his table is not a fully effective classification of elements. However, Julius Lothar Meyer was able to find where Newlands went wrong. Meyer was the man to find Newlands mistake that each period only contained seven elements when each horizontal row should contain eight elements. Originally, Meyer’s table was rotated 90°, which is the same way the modern periodic table is. Meyer also recognized that some rows would contain more elements per row, while Newlands did not find this pattern. Meyer came closer than both Döbereiner and Newlands when classifying elements, but Dmitri Mendeleev is the one who is credited with creating the basis of the periodic table scientists use