The Philosophical Magazine and the Periodic Table of Elements

Abstract

The history of the Periodic Table of Elements covers almost 300 years: from the discovery of phosphorus in 1669 to that of Lawrencium in 1961. Before that period, only elements such as copper, silver, gold, mercury, lead and of course carbon were known, which already had accompanied the history of mankind for millennia. The first “wave” of discoveries of new metals occurred at the close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries and was almost entirely based on “wet chemistry”. Because this period, in which no physics-related techniques of identification were available, seems to be now so remote, it is worthwhile to recall these discoveries in the context and style of their time by making use of the Philosophical Magazine archives.

Keywords:

• history of science
• chemistry
• metals
• metallurgy

Notes

Notes

1. The history of the last 6000–7000 years can be viewed also using entirely metallurgical terms. Homer's Iliad, the fall of Troy, for example, appears to be a metaphorical setting for the transitional period between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Very often the rise of a new Middle East high culture was connected with a new metallurgical technique. In some cultures the knowledge of metallurgy is indeed astonishing: Tumbago, for example, a copper-gold alloy used frequently in South American precolumbian cultures, corresponds almost exactly to the eutectic point in the phase diagram.

2. Greek: chrōma, color.

3. A fine fibrous form of (usually) amphibole or serpentine.

4. Sheet silicates.

5. 1 toise was exactly 6 pieds (feet) (about 1.949 meters) in France until 1812.

6. A platinum-containing ore found in Columbia, South America.

7. Historically, graphite was called blacklead and plumbago.

8. Aqua regia, nitro-hydrochloric acid.

9. Hydrochloric acid.

10. Greek: “with the colours of the rainbow,” after Iris, the Greek winged goddess of the rainbow and the messenger of the Olympian gods.

11. Greek: osmē, smell, odour. Just as a matter of curiosity, the name of the well-known company providing light bulbs, Osram, is derived from “Osmium” and “Wolfram” (tungsten).

12. Sal ammoniac: white crystalline ammonium chloride NH₄Cl occurring as a mineral in nature. It is highly soluble in water.

13. Greek: rhodeos, rose-coloured, “rose-red.”

14. From the Greek mythology: Niobe, daughter of Tantalus.

15. Named by Wollaston after the asteroid Pallas, which in turn is derived from the Greek goddess Pallas (Athene).

16. Solid material mostly containing KCl.

17. Muriatic acid: hydrochloric acid.

18. This will be the topic of an upcoming commentary.