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A WELL-ORDERED THING: DMITRII MENDELEEV AND THE SHADOW OF THE PERIODIC TABLE By Michael Gordin (Basic Books; $19.80) )

Dimitrii Mendeleev is known by most chemists as the father of the Periodic Table of the Elements, something which all of them had to suffer through at one point or another. Regarded as the greatest Russian scientist of his generation, Mendeleev died in 1907, a few years after his beloved Tsar had allowed a limited democratic government to be established. A WELL-ORDERED THING is a detailed study of the scientist by Michael Gordon, a scholar of science and Russian history.

The major contribution of Mendeleev, the table, is also one of the most elusive. Mendeleev kept copies of his documents and correspondence after he became famous, but little before. Thus the biographer has a difficult time trying to reconstruct Mendeleev's state of mind at the time. The origins of the famous table can be found in his Principles of Chemistry (1868) textbook in which he discussed the relationships of the elements that were known at the time. Later he would print a chart that predicated the discovery of unknown "eka-elements" to fill in blank spaces. When some of these elements were discovered a few years later, Mendeleev’s fame would be secure.

The book is significant as it places Mendeleev’s accomplishments as a product of Imperial Russia. A staunch believer in the Russian monarchy, he desired to see the reforms of Alexander the Second carried out to preserve the empire. But the reforms were eventually curtailed. The book also spends a lot of time on his greatest failures. Mendeleev was a staunch believer in the "aether" as a way to explain subatomic action of molecules. Much of his costly and large-scale gas experiments were aimed at trying to quantify the mass and substance of the "aether". This is a very well written book with extensive footnotes. English translations are freely provided for Russian terminology and the illustrations of Mendeleev’s early drafts of the Periodic Table help to make the book interesting.




	Biohazard46 My Journal Home Get Email Updates Chemistry Hotline Mad Scientist The Chemistry Cluster Culture Of Chemistry In The Pipeline Wolfram Research Email Me Admin Password Remember Me 22542 Curiosities served Share on Facebook				2005-07-22 9:06 AM Book Review: A WELL-ORDERED THING Previous Entry :: Next Entry Mood: Contemplative Read/Post Comments (0) A WELL-ORDERED THING: DMITRII MENDELEEV AND THE SHADOW OF THE PERIODIC TABLE By Michael Gordin (Basic Books; $19.80) ) Dimitrii Mendeleev is known by most chemists as the father of the Periodic Table of the Elements, something which all of them had to suffer through at one point or another. Regarded as the greatest Russian scientist of his generation, Mendeleev died in 1907, a few years after his beloved Tsar had allowed a limited democratic government to be established. A WELL-ORDERED THING is a detailed study of the scientist by Michael Gordon, a scholar of science and Russian history. The major contribution of Mendeleev, the table, is also one of the most elusive. Mendeleev kept copies of his documents and correspondence after he became famous, but little before. Thus the biographer has a difficult time trying to reconstruct Mendeleev's state of mind at the time. The origins of the famous table can be found in his Principles of Chemistry (1868) textbook in which he discussed the relationships of the elements that were known at the time. Later he would print a chart that predicated the discovery of unknown "eka-elements" to fill in blank spaces. When some of these elements were discovered a few years later, Mendeleev’s fame would be secure. The book is significant as it places Mendeleev’s accomplishments as a product of Imperial Russia. A staunch believer in the Russian monarchy, he desired to see the reforms of Alexander the Second carried out to preserve the empire. But the reforms were eventually curtailed. The book also spends a lot of time on his greatest failures. Mendeleev was a staunch believer in the "aether" as a way to explain subatomic action of molecules. Much of his costly and large-scale gas experiments were aimed at trying to quantify the mass and substance of the "aether". This is a very well written book with extensive footnotes. English translations are freely provided for Russian terminology and the illustrations of Mendeleev’s early drafts of the Periodic Table help to make the book interesting. Read/Post Comments (0) Previous Entry :: Next Entry Back to Top