Origins and consequences of the periodic table, the most concise encyclopedia created by mankind.

Abstract

The slow process of the discovery of the elements led to a need to investigate their relations with one another; this was the path, which ultimately produced Mendeleev's classification, the ancestor of the present Periodic Table. Once established, the Table, in its turn, became a guiding thread leading to the discovery of yet other new elements. This whole process can be likened to a two-way avenue, the first way leading to the establishment of the classification, whereas the latter, once established, inverted the traffic, completing our present 118-element Periodic Table. In this sesquicentennial year of its inception, it is appropriate to survey the fascinating history of the long and arduous path of the creation of what can be rightly called the most concise encyclopedia devised by the human mind.