John Alexander Reina Newlands(26 November 1837 – 29 July 1898) was a British chemist who worked concerning the periodicity of elements.[1]
John Newlands | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 26 November 1837 Lambeth, London,England |
| Died | 21 July 1898(aged 60) Lower Clapton, Middlesex,England |
| Alma mater | Royal College of Chemistry Imperial College London |
| Known for | Periodic table,law of octaves |
| Awards | Davy Medal(1887) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Analytical chemistry |
Biography
edit
Newlands was born inLondonin England, atWest SquareinSouthwark,the son of a ScottishPresbyterianminister and his Italian wife.[2]
Newlands washome-schooledby his father, and later studied at theRoyal College of Chemistry,now part ofImperial College London.He was interested in social reform and during 1860 served as a volunteer withGiuseppe Garibaldiin his military campaign to unify Italy.[3]Returning to London, Newlands established himself as ananalytical chemistin 1864. In 1868 he became chief chemist of James Duncan's Londonsugar refinery,where he introduced a number of improvements in processing. Later he quit the refinery and again became an analyst with his brother, Benjamin.
Newlands was the first person to devise a periodic table ofchemical elementsarranged in order of their relativeatomic masses[4]published inChemical Newsin February 1863.[3][5]ContinuingJohann Wolfgang Döbereiner's work withtriadsandJean-Baptiste Dumas' families of similar elements, he published in 1865 his "Law of Octaves",which stated that" any given element will exhibit analogous behaviour to the eighth element following it in the table. "Newlands arranged all of the known elements, starting withhydrogenand ending withthorium(atomic weight 232), into eight groups of seven, which he likened tooctaves of music.[6][7]In Newlands' table, the elements were ordered by the atomic weights that were known at the time and were numbered sequentially to show their order.Groupswere shown going across the table, withperiodsgoing down – the opposite from the modern form of the periodic table.
The incompleteness of the table alluded to the possible existence of additional, undiscovered elements. However, the Law of Octaves was ridiculed by some of Newlands' contemporaries, and the Society of Chemists did not accept his work for publication.[8]
AfterDmitri MendeleevandLothar Meyerreceived theDavy Medalfrom theRoyal Societyfor their later 'discovery' of the periodic table in 1882, Newlands fought for recognition of his earlier work and eventually received the Davy Medal in 1887.
John Newlands died due to complications of surgery at his home inLower Clapton,Middlesex and was buried atWest Norwood Cemetery.His businesses was continued after his death by his younger brother, Benjamin.
Works
edit- On the discovery of the periodic law, and on relations among the atomic weights.London: Spon. 1884.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^Carmen J. Giunta, Vera V. Mainz, and Julianna Poole-Sawyer (2020), "Periodicity in Britain: The Periodic Tables of Odling and Newlands" in150 Years of the Periodic Table,Springer, pp. 93-131.
- ^'Newlands, Newlands, John Alexander Reina'by Michael A. Sutton,Dictionary of National Biography,Oxford University Press,2004. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
- ^abChisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)..Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 515.
- ^Like many of his contemporaries, Newlands first used the terms "equivalent weight" and "atomic weight" without any distinction of meaning and in his first paper during 1863. He used the values accepted by his predecessors. It is now referred to as "standard atomic weight".
- ^Newlands, John A. R. (7 February 1863)."On Relations Among the Equivalents".Chemical News.7:70–72.
- ^Newlands, John A. R. (20 August 1864)."On Relations Among the Equivalents".Chemical News.10:94–95.
- ^Newlands, John A. R. (18 August 1865)."On the Law of Octaves".Chemical News.12:83.
- ^Bryson, Bill(2004).A Short History of Nearly Everything.London: Black Swan. pp. 141–142.ISBN978-0-552-15174-0.
Further reading
edit- Scerri, Eric R. (2007).The periodic table: Its story and its significance.Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.72.ISBN978-0-19-530573-9.