The Elements: An Illustrated History of the Periodic Table  The
Elements: An Illustrated History of the Periodic Table Jackson,
Tom  In 1869 Dmitri Mendeleev presented the world with the
Periodic Table. It contained 63 elements, many more than the
four--earth, water, fire, and air--established in the ancient
world, but less than half the total in our modern table.
Mendeleev believed there were many elements still to come. He
was right. With over 300 illustrations, this essential guide to
the Periodic Table, tracks the history of a powerful yet elegant
tool that lays bare the building blocks of the Universe. The
journey begins just as the first cities are forming, and follows
the contributions made by philosophers, alchemists,
industrialists, and great scientists as they gather force to
create this masterpiece of accumulated knowledge. The story
includes Democritus of ancient Greece who said that the four
elements of nature must be made of atoms; otherwise our world is
just an illusion, and the French aristocr