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).
Periodic Tables from the year 1888 :
| 1888 | Stoney's Spiral |
| 1888 | Stoney's Spiral Periodic Table |
| Year: 1888 | PT id = 997, Type = formulation spiral |
Stoney's Spiral
Johnstone Stoney's Spiral, taken from A. E. Garrett's The Periodic Law (page 167, 1909 pub. D. Appleton And Company). The reference is given – page 167 – is: Phil. Mag. [6], 4, pp 411 et seq.; Proc. Roy. Soc., 1888, p115.

Thanks to Roy Alexander for the tip!
| Year: 1888 | PT id = 1267, Type = formulation spiral |
Stoney's Spiral Periodic Table
In the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character, Volume 85, Issue 580, Aug 1911, p. 472, there is an article On Dr. Johnstone Stoney's Logarithmic Law of Atomic Weights, by Lord Rayleigh (who co-discovered argon in 1894), who writes :
"In the year 1888, Dr. G. Johnstone Stoney communicated to the Society a memoir with title nearly as above, which, however, was not published in full. At the request of the author, who attaches great importance to the memoir, I have recently, by permission of the Council, consulted the original manuscript in the archives of the Society, and I propose to give some extracts, accompanied by a few remarks. The author commenced by plotting the atomic weights of the elements taken as ordinates against a series of natural numbers as abscissæ. But a curve traced through the points thus determined was found to be 'one which has not been studied by mathematicians.
"This sudden transition may have some connection with the fact that no elements have been found on sesqui-radius 16, although the investigation in § 3 shows that the values of m corresponding to the stations on sesqui-radius 16 cannot be dispensed with.
"The vacant places here pointed out are now occupied by the since discovered inert gases. The anticipation is certainly a remarkable one, and it goes far to justify the high claims made for the diagram, as representing in a telling form many of the leading facts of chemistry."
Comment from Mark Leach:
"Notice how the electronegative elements are positioned top right & bottom right and the electropositive elements top left & bottom right."

René Vernon writes:
"Stoney has another article in the September 1902 edition of the The London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, called Law of Atomic Weights, pp. 411–415. At the back of the journal is an updated fold-out version of Stoney’s table, image attached.
- Ar, Kr and Xe fit on the spiral, and on spoke 16.
- Neon fits on the spiral but is instead on spoke 8.
- Helium is on spoke 18 but is not on the spiral.
- The circle in the middle represents H (p. 414).
"On the page after the updated spiral, there looks to be some printed content, but it is hidden by what looks to be a folded over page."

Thanks to René for the tip!
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| What is the Periodic Table Showing? | Periodicity |
© Mark R. Leach Ph.D. 1999 –
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