On The Rocks: Periodic Table of Chemical Elements

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On The Rocks: Periodic Table of Chemical Elements

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Here's another wonderful article from Rock & Gem, that I especially appreciated because I did not know the story of how the Periodic Table of Elements as we know it today came about, and have always found the table to be confusing to me, so I liked how Mr Jones explained the history of it, and why it is set up as it is. I hope you find this article as interesting as I did. Enjoy! :)

On The Rocks: Periodic Table of Chemical Elements
By Admin - April 4, 2019

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By Bob Jones

"In December 2017, at the United Nations General Assembly, 72nd session, in New York City, the membership proclaimed the year 2019 to be International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements.

Collectors know there is nothing more closely related to minerals than the Periodic Table of Elements. Every mineral species is made up of a particular set of chemical elements that make it what it is. Change the elements in any way, and you change the mineral species to one variety or another. Discovery of the chemical elements was due largely to chemical experiments on minerals by alchemists and scientists. This suggests that the year 2019 should highlight the relationship of minerals to the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements.

Path to Discovery Challenging

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The modern Periodic Table, though modified, is based on Dimitri Mendeleev’s table.

The curiosity of humans led to investigation of minerals and discovery of their chemical makeup. We should pay homage to those who suffered ailments, even death, in the search for elements in minerals. An example of this dedication is the search for fluorine element #9. It is the most chemically active element, so chemically active that it was nearly impossible to capture and isolate in a free state. Scientists finally had to make their lab equipment of fluorite, CaF2. The French scientist Henri Moissan is credited with the successful capture of fluorine, but he died later as result of his work.

The theory that all matter was made up of four elements – earth, air, fire, and water – prevailed in ancient times. There were a few natural substances – gold, silver, mercury, copper, sulfur, carbon – found in a natural form, but people believed they, too, were made of the four basic elements. People believed if they could discover how these minerals formed from earth, air, fire, and water, they could change or mutate useless materials into gold. This mistaken belief led to the appearance of alchemists, pseudo-scientists who searched for the elixir of life believed to change lead into gold.

In the alchemists’ search for the elixir of life, they investigated just about everything on earth in hope of producing gold. They did discover some useful substances, and one alchemist, Hennig Brand, did discover a then-unknown element, phosphorus, as the first ever element extracted from a compound.

Exploring the 'Elixir of Life'

In 1669, the German alchemist, Henning Brand, was searching for the elixir of life. While looking through his barn, he saw a substance on the floor that he had not yet examined. He gathered it and worked all day testing and using a retort, a device used for distillation, in an effort to extract the mysterious elixir he sought.

After retiring for the night, he realized there was a faint glow coming from his work area. ... "

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PinkDiamond
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