This Day in Science History - February 7 - Periodic Table and Law of Octaves

February 7, 1863 was the day John Newlands published what would be known as "The Law of Octaves". Newlands discovered if he ordered the known elements by increasing atomic weights, the chemical properties of the elements would be similar for every eighth group. Since the pattern seemed to follow the same pattern as the piano's octaves, he called his periodic law the "Law of Octaves"

The reception Newlands received after publishing this discovery was primarily severe criticism. His ideas were publicly labeled 'useless' and 'arbitrary' and caused him to give up his work on organizing the elements. In the next decade, two other chemists published periodic laws based on atomic weights. Mendeleev and Meyer both independently identified their versions of the Law of Octaves and showed Newlands' ideas were neither 'arbitrary' no 'useless'. The periodic table would follow the increasing atomic weights until the discovery of atomic numbers by Henry Moseley in 1914 and the current periodic table was born.

Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.

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