John Newlands

“Should space aliens visit earth, I suggest communications begin with a blank periodic table--anyone capable of space travel would surely recognize the unique shape. So what's the origin of this universally recognized shape or did Mendeleev come down a mountain carrying the famous outline carved in rectangular stone? (Thall)” Who all had their ideas used in the periodic table? There are many different chemists given, a least a little, credit for their contributions to the finding and making of the modern day periodic table. The one I would like to let you know a little more about is John Newlands. He is pictured to the right (Thall).

In my searching I found that his last name can be spelled Newland or Newlands. John Alexander Reina Newlands was born on November 26th in the year 1837. He was born in London, England. He died in London, England on July 29th in the year 1898 due to unknown causes.

Throughout my research, I was unsuccessful in finding information about his childhood, his parents, and his family life. The earliest information, other than his birth date, I was able to find was that he went to the Royal College of Chemistry, located in London. After graduating from college, John Newlands worked as a volunteer under Giuseppe Garibaldi, a man working to achieve the Italian unification, and that was in the year 1860. Eventually, he became an industrial chemist.

John Newlands is famous for his organizing the known elements of his time into an order by using their increasing atomic weight and their similar chemical properties. He set them up similar to the musical scale with every eighth element having similar chemical properties of the others in its group. This action became known as putting them into octaves. Pictured to the left is the arrangement of the elements as John Newland had them organized (Thall). He published his arrangement of the elements in 1864. In the beginning, many other chemists were dubious of John’s ideas, but in the end they were accepted and were a very important part of the Chemistry field. The organization John used became known as the modern Law of Octaves. Research also says that he is highly credited for his contribution to the development of the modern periodic table.

John Newlands made a major contribution in the development of the modern periodic table and this benefited to the good of our modern society and the society of the 1800’s. Without his assistance in making this table, we might not have gotten one until much later and other chemists and scientists and inventors might not have made some of the discoveries related to the periodic table. He made a contribution that was very beneficial to the people of his time and to the people of today.

If I had the opportunity to speak with John Newlands, first I would thank him for helping with the development of the periodic table. Without his contributions, we might not have a lot of the things we have today. When anyone looks around, he can see that there are elements and atoms and ions in everything we eat and drink, and in other items we use on a daily basis. The question I would ask him would be “How did you get any of the ideas that the periodic table would need to be arranged in octaves and certain patterns?”

After my research, I can say I actually learned a lot about John Newlands and about the life he led. He is a very important person in the history of chemistry and the world could be a different place if he were never born.