Periodic Table |
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| What is the Periodic Table Showing? | Periodicity |
The INTERNET Database of Periodic Tables
There are thousands of periodic tables in web space, but this is the only comprehensive database of periodic tables & periodic system formulations. If you know of an interesting periodic table that is missing, please contact the database curator: Mark R. Leach Ph.D. The database holds information on periodic tables, the discovery of the elements, the elucidation of atomic weights and the discovery of atomic structure (and much, much more).
| Year: 1944 | PT id = 1305, Type = formulation spiral |
Emerson's Spiral Formulation
Emerson EI, 1944, A new spiral form of the periodic table, JChemEd., vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 111–115
René Vernon writes:
Emerson says that the elements in the A groups are called the representative elements because, as Eble states, they "include metals, nonmetals, inert elements, liquids, and gases." Eble RL, 1938, Atomic structure and the periodic table, JChemEd., vol. 15, p. 575
Note the inclusion in Emerson’s table of the neutron as element 0. Astonishingly, Emerson writes: "Element 0, possibly neutron [sic], is considered as a noble gas. Because of its probable chemical inertness and extreme density it might not be detected in a sizeable amount until some future scientist succeeds in sampling the center of the Earth." (p. 111)
(Mark Leach adds: The date is 1944 when the Manhattan Project was in full swing and nothing was being published about nuclear physics and/or neutron interactions. This idea may have come from some type of Popular Science story?)
Other features:
- The A and B groups are diametrically opposed in their positioning. "The electron structure of H either as H+ or H– finds a counterpart in the structure of element 0 or 2." (p. 113)
- The cell spaces for Be and Mg have been stretched on account of uncertainty as to whether they belong to group 2 or group 12. "The break between the periphery of the loops of the spiral along the spaces allotted to Mg and the transition metals of the fourth period serves to indicate that Be and Mg are not to be considered as a kind of prototype of these groups." (p. 111)
- "The C group is shown as a separate segment. If one were not concerned by plane representation the rare earths could be represented as a loop or bulge above the surface of the plane. One might imagine that this group of metals is a sort of hernia of nature that has been excised so as to maintain a flat surface." (p. 112–113)

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| What is the Periodic Table Showing? | Periodicity |
© Mark R. Leach Ph.D. 1999 –
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