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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

Mazurs 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

Sample illustration: Periodic table in the style of a space lemniscate by William Crookes

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

His 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

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

References

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ Jensen, William B. (1986). "CLASSIFICATION, SYMMETRY AND THE PERIODIC TABLE" (PDF). Comp. & Maths. With Appls. 12B (I/2). Retrieved 18 January 2017.
  4. ^ Katz, Gary (August 18, 2007). "Post Mendeleevian Evolution of the Periodic Table" (PDF). Periodic Round Table.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ Mazurs, Edward G. (1957). Types of Graphic Representation of the Periodic System of Chemical Elements. The Author. p. 158.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ Black, David V. (January 3, 2010). "Periodic Tables and Strange Attractors". The Elements Unearthed.
  10. ^ Hargittai, István (2014). Symmetry: Unifying Human Understanding. Elsevier. pp. 492–499. ISBN 9781483149523.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ "1969 Mazurs Periodic System of Chemical Elements". The INTERNET Database of Periodic Tables. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_G._Mazurs