Edward G. Mazurs (1894–1983) was a chemist who wrote a history of the periodic system of the chemical elements which is still considered a "classic book on the history of the periodic table".[1] Originally self-published as Types of graphic representation of the periodic system of chemical elements (1957), it was reviewed by the ACS in 1958 as "the most complete survey of the range of human imagination in representing graphically the Mendeleev periodic law."[2]
A revised "centenary" edition covering a full 100 years of periodic tables was republished under the title Graphic Representations of the Periodic System During One Hundred Years in 1974. Mazurs provided a comprehensive analysis and classification of periodic tables, listing and classifying over 700 periodic tables.[3] He recommended Charles Janet's left-step system and suggested that it could be expanded into three dimensions.[4]
Life and career
editMazurs was born in Latvia, then under Czarist rule. He earned a master's degree at the University of Riga (later the University of Latvia), teaching there after independence as a professor of chemistry, from 1919 to 1940.[5]
Mazurs fled with his wife and son when Latvia was reoccupied by the Soviet Union in 1944 and spent years as a refugee, some of it in a refugee camp in Regensberg, Germany. He immigrated to America in 1949. After working at Argo Corn Products, he eventually obtained a professorship at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.[6]
Publications
edit
In a self-published book, Types of Graphic Representation of the Periodic System of the Elements (1957) he listed some 700 images published since 1862, classified under 146 heads.[7] He brought out a greatly expanded version in 1974: Graphic Representations of the Periodic System during One Hundred Years.[8][9][10]
Mazurs's books are difficult to use because the references are divided into 146 corresponding sections, and the index refers to the types and not to pages.[11] Nevertheless, his references are the most comprehensive and accurate ever compiled for the period covered. He cited authors writing in at least 24 languages and from fifty countries.[12]
Working before the age of the photocopier, he copied his illustrations by hand and generally brought them up to date by adding elements missing from the original works, and sometimes he changed them radically. He gave 67 references to the modern standard medium long table, but paid it little attention, attributing its origin to Dmitri Mendeleev, who gave only a fragmentary description of it because he disliked interrupted series. Mazurs preferred tables based on electronic structure, notably that of Charles Janet and his own modification of it.[13]
Papers
editHis notes and papers are held in the library of the Science History Institute, 315 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106, where they occupy 4 linear feet, and include lantern slides and transparencies of periodic tables which appear in his books.[5]
Periodic tables
edit| Year | Creator(s) | Figure numbers & types (1957 edition) |
|---|---|---|
| 1790 | Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, Antoine Lavoisier, Claude Louis Berthollet, Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy | 3 Table |
| 1830 | Jean-Baptiste Dumas | 4 Table |
| 1830 | Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner | 5 Table |
| 1840 | Leopold Gmelin | 6 V-shape |
| 1860 | Julius Lothar Meyer | 7 Table |
| 1863 | Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois | 8 Table |
| 1863 | Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois & John Alexander Reina Newlands | 10 Table; 21 Tables of the Laws of Octaves |
| 1864 | William Odling | 11 Table |
| 1865 | John Alexander Reina Newlands | 9 Table; 22 1C1-1 |
| 1867/1869 | Gustavus Detlef Hinrichs | 12 Table |
| 1868/1895 | Julius Lothar Meyer | 13 Table |
| 1869 | Dmitri Mendeleev | 14, 15, 16, 17 Table ; 42 IIC1-1; 53 IIC2-3; 54 IIC2-4; 62 IIC1-1A; 79 IIIC3-5 |
| 1870 | Dmitri Mendeleev | 18, 20, Table; 24, 1C2-1 |
| 1870 | Heinrich Adolph Baumhauer | 29 1B2-4 |
| 1871 | Dmitri Mendeleev | 19 Table; 47 IIC2-1 |
| 1882 | Thomas Bayley | 82 IIIC3-6 |
| 1883 | Heinrich Friedrich Gretschel 1830–1892 & Georg Bornemann, 1855– | 30 1C2-4 |
| 1884 | Ernst Huth | 32 1B2-5 |
| 1885 | Karl Arnold 1853–1929 | 33 1C2-5 |
| 1886 | James Emerson Reynolds 1844–1920 | 44 IICI-2 |
| 1886 | Thomas Carnelley 1854–1890 | 59 IIC2-7 |
| 1887 | Flavian Mikhailovich Flavitskii 1848–1917 | 41 IIBI-1 |
| 1889 | Victor von Richter | 26 1C2-2 |
| 1892 | William T. Preyer | 27 1C2-2B |
| 1892 | Henry Bassett, Sr. | 34 1A3-1; 68 IIIC3-1 |
| 1898 | William Crookes | 43 IIAI-2 |
| 1900 | George F. Horsley | 57 IIC2-5B |
| 1900 | Karl Schirmeisen | 69 IIIA3-2 |
| 1905 | Frank Austin Gooch & Claude Frederic Walker | 70 IIIA3-2A |
| 1905 | Alfred Werner | 75 IIIC3-3 |
| 1906 | George Woodiwiss | 50 IIC2-2 |
| 1910 | J. F. Tocher | 52 IIB2-3 |
| 1911 | Benjamin Kendall Emerson | 45 IIA2-1; 46 IIB2-1 |
| 1911 | Eduard von Stackelberg | 51 IIA2-3 |
| 1911 | Antonius van den Broek | 56 IIC2-5A |
| 1911 | Curt Schmidt | 80 IIIC3-5A |
| 1913 | Johannes Robert Rydberg | 63 IIIB2-1 |
| 1914 | Arthur Alphonzo Blanchard & Frank Bertram Wade | 28 1C2-3 |
| 1914 | Frederick Soddy | 48 IIA2-2 |
| 1915 | Alois Bilecki | 64 IIIA2-2 |
| 1916 | William Draper Harkins & R. E. Hall | 31 1A2-5 |
| 1916 | Hugo Stintzing | 65 IIIA3-1; 66 IIIB3-1 |
| 1918 | J. G. Vogel | 38 1A3-2 |
| 1918 | Curt Schmidt | 55 IIC2-5 |
| 1920 | George Schaltenbrand | 85 IIIA4-1 |
| 1922 | Eugenio Saz | 72 IIIC3-2 |
| 1925 | Andreas von Antropoff | 60 IIC2-7A |
| 1926 | Andreas von Antropoff | 83 IIIC3-6A |
| 1926 | C. J. Monroe & W. D. Turner | 86 IIIB4-1 |
| 1926 | Luigi Rolla & Giorgio Piccardi | 91 IIIC4-2A |
| 1927 | John David Main Smith | 23 1C1-2 |
| 1927 | Charles Janet | 76 IIIC3-4 |
| 1928 | Charles Janet | 67 IIIB3-1C; 71 IIIB3-2; 74 IIIB3-2; 87 IIIB4-1A |
| 1928 | O. J. Stewart | 25 1B2-2 |
| 1930 | Roy Gardner & Arrigo Mazzucchelli | 92 IIIC4-2B |
| 1931 | C. H. Douglas Clark (Cecil Henry) | 90 IIIC4-2 |
| 1932 | F. M. Shemyakin | 36 1C3-1 |
| 1935 | Nicholas Opolonick | 61 IIIB1-1 |
| 1936 | Egon Wiberg 1901–1976 | 58 IIC2-6 |
| 1937 | Emil V. Zmaczynski | 84 IIIC3-6B |
| 1938 | Robert A. Steinberg | 95 IIIC4-3 |
| 1941 | L. Sibaiya | 94 IIIB4-3 |
| 1942 | Friedrich Kipp | 49 IIB2-2 |
| 1943 | G. Haenzel | 93 IIIA4-3 |
| 1948 | George A. Scherer | 73 IIIA3-3 |
| 1948 | David T. Gibson | 88 IIIC4-1 |
| 1949 | G. M. Murashov | 40 1C3-2A |
| 1950 | Frank O. Green & Bernard G. Jackson | 35 1B3-1 |
| 1951 | I. Aucken | 81 IIIA3-6 |
| 1953 | Gil Chaverri Rodríguez | 89 IIIC4-1C |
| 1954 | A.I. Mashentsev | 37 1C3-1A |
| 1955 | Edward G. Mazurs | 77 IIIC3-4C; 78 IIIC3-4B |
| 1956 | Edward G. Mazurs | 39 1C3-2 |
External links
edit- "Finding Aid to Edward G. Mazurs Collection of Periodic Systems Images". Science History Institute.
Click on 'Finding Aid' to go to full finding aid.
- Edward G. Mazurs Collection of Periodic Systems Images. Science History Institute Digital Collections. (87 high-resolution scans of models of the periodic table used by Edward G. Mazurs in Types of Graphic Representation of the Periodic System of Chemical Elements (1957).
References
edit- ^ Scerri, Eric R. (2007). The periodic table : its story and its significance. New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press. p. 122. ISBN 9780195305739. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
- ^ Foster, Laurence S. (August 1958). "Types of graphic representation of the periodic system of chemical elements (Mazurs, Edward G. G.)". Journal of Chemical Education. 35 (8): 415. doi:10.1021/ed035p415.
- ^ Jensen, William B. (1986). "CLASSIFICATION, SYMMETRY AND THE PERIODIC TABLE" (PDF). Comp. & Maths. With Appls. 12B (I/2). Retrieved 18 January 2017.
- ^ Katz, Gary (August 18, 2007). "Post Mendeleevian Evolution of the Periodic Table" (PDF). Periodic Round Table.
- ^ a b "Finding Aid to Edward G. Mazurs Collection of Periodic Systems Images". Science History Institute.
Click on 'Finding Aid' to go to full finding aid.
- ^ Katz, Gary (2001). "The Periodic Table: An eight Period Table for the 21st Century". The Chemical Educator. 6 (6): 324–332. doi:10.1007/s00897010515a. S2CID 21704254.
- ^ Mazurs, Edward G. (1957). Types of Graphic Representation of the Periodic System of Chemical Elements. The Author. p. 158.
- ^ Mazurs, Edward G. (1974). Graphic Representations of the Periodic System during One Hundred Years. University of Alabama Press. p. 251. ISBN 978-0-8173-3200-6.
- ^ Black, David V. (January 3, 2010). "Periodic Tables and Strange Attractors". The Elements Unearthed.
- ^ Hargittai, István (2014). Symmetry: Unifying Human Understanding. Elsevier. pp. 492–499. ISBN 9781483149523.
- ^ Hargittai, Balazs; Hargittai, Istvan (April 20, 2015). Culture of Chemistry: The Best Articles on the Human Side of 20th-Century Chemistry from the Archives of the Chemical Intelligencer. Springer. p. 188. ISBN 9781489975645. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
- ^ Katz, G. (2001). "The Periodic Table: An Eight-Period Table For The 21st Century" (PDF). Chem. Educator. 6 (6): 324–332. doi:10.1007/s00897010515a. S2CID 21704254. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
- ^ "1969 Mazurs Periodic System of Chemical Elements". The INTERNET Database of Periodic Tables. Retrieved 18 January 2017.