The "oldest" periodic table in the world found at a UK university

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Image: University of St. Andrews

An 1885 periodic table was found in the storage area of the School of Chemistry at the University of St. Andrews, suggesting that the table may be World's oldest surviving periodical.

The university made the disclosure through its official website on January 17. The periodic table was discovered by Dr. Alan Aitken during a storage cleanup in 2014. Then, storage was filled with laboratory equipment and paraphernalia that grew over the years since the department opened in 1968.

The table periodically it was described as "extremely fr gil "and" chipped in handling. " It seemed similar, but not entirely identical, to the second periodic table that Dmitri Mendeleev formulated in 1871. However, the university said that it was clearly an early specimen.

"The discovery of the oldest classroom periodic table in the world at the University of St. Andrews is remarkable," said Professor David O'Hagan, former chief of chemistry at the University of St. Andrews. uni .

" The table will be available for research and exhibition at the University and we have several events planned for 2019, which has been designated as the international year of the table of the United Nations., to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the creation of the table by Dmitri Mendeleev, "O'Hagan added.

The periodic table was annotated in German and an inscription at the bottom, "Verlag v. Lenoir & Forster, Wien ", revealed a scientist a printer operating in Vienna between 1875 and 1888. Meanwhile, another inscription," Lith. Von Ant. Hartinger & Sohn , Wien, "identified the lithographer of the painting who died in 1890.

" This table seems to be the only one that survives from this period in all of Europe, "the university said." The University is interested in know if there are others out there that are close in age or even before the St. Andrews table. "

Since then, the Special Collections of the University have received a funding grant from the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust (NCMT) with the hope of preserving the delicate letter for posterity.A full size replica of the discovered periodic table was also produced and can now be seen at the School of Chemistry.

" We are delighted to know when the oldest periodic table table known to be used in teaching reached St. Andrews …" Gabriel Sewell, head of Special Collections, was quoted as saying. "We hope to make it accessible to everyone." JB

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