History of the Periodic Table

Paragraph 1

The evolution of the Periodic Table. In the beginning of the early 19th century, only 52 elements were discovered and known about. John Dalton was born in 1766, and always had a huge passion for weather and meteorology. He kept a meteorological diary for 57 years-more than 200,000 entries- and he used that information to help him with his research. Dalton came up with the theory of matter, which basically said two things. The first being that there were as many atoms as there were elements and then second stated different atoms of different elements have different weights. Jon Bezalius discovered  the element silicon (Si) in 1824. Silicon turns out to be the most abundant element after oxygen (O). Elements that he is also credited with the founding of are; thorium (Th), cerium (Ce) and selenium (Se).  The next scientist, Wolfgang Dobereiner, is credited with his study of triads. Triads are closely related properties which are altogether families, and he tested this theory with sodium (Na), potassium (K) and lithium (Li). Dmitri Medndeleev was given the nickname, "the Russian Leonardo DaVinci," and is the founder and originator of the periodic table of elements. He attended the first ever International Chemistry Conference, and after the conference, he combined the two methods of how people thought he table should be arranged, and the rest is how we know it today. Stanislao Cannizaro founded a new way of calculating the atomic weights of elements. He used the density of gases and vapors, and by doing this he created a new standard for measuring atomic weights. John Newlands studied and found that when elements were arranged by weight, certain properties repeated themselves. He came up with the octave system of placing the elements. Henry Moseley organized the periodic table by each elements atomic number. He was only able to do this by the discovery of the proton, which happened earlier in history. 

Paragraph 2

Option 1 - I find that John Dalton is the most interesting character, because of his passion for weather and how he applied that to chemistry. He was very dedicated to his study of chemistry and never stopped writing entries in that 57 year time period. His theory of matter principle was very advanced for the time period, especially the minute details such as how different atoms of different elements have different weights. He was very supportive to chemistry and what we know today.