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The INTERNET Database of Periodic Tables

There are thousands of periodic tables in web space, but this is the only comprehensive database of periodic tables & periodic system formulations. If you know of an interesting periodic table that is missing, please contact the database curator: Mark R. Leach Ph.D.

Use the drop menus below to search & select from the more than 1300 Period Tables in the database: 

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Periodic Tables from the year 1958:

1958   Mazurs' 1958-73 Formulation
1958   Landau & Lifshitz's Periodic System of Mendeleev
1958   Weaver & Foster's Laminar Chart of the Elements


Year:  1958 PT id = 693, Type = formulation

Mazurs' 1958-73 Formulation

From Edward G. Mazurs' 1974 (2nd edition) Graphic Representations of the Periodic System During One Hundred Years, University of Alabama Press:

Mazurs 1958-73

Thanks to Philip Stewart for the tip!

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Year:  1958 PT id = 1148, Type = formulation

Landau & Lifshitz's Periodic System of Mendeleev

L.D. Landau & E.M. Lifshitz, Quantum Mechanics (Volume 3 of A Course of Theoretical Physics), pages 255-258. (Note: First published in English in 1958, the link is to the 1963 3rd ed. of the English version translated from Russian.)

René Vernon writes:

The authors discuss aspects of the periodic system of D I Mendeleev. The electron configurations of hydrogen & helium are briefly noted. This is followed by three tables setting out the electron configurations of the s, p, d & f elements.

Some extracts from the text follow:

"The elucidation of the nature of the periodic variation of properties, observed in the series of elements when they are placed in order of increasing atomic number, requires an examination of the peculiarities in the successive completion of the electron shells of atoms." (p. 252)

"Many properties of atoms (including the chemical properties of elements...) depend principally on the outer regions of the electron envelopes." (p. 254)

"The elements containing complete d and f shells (or not containing these shells at all) are called elements of the principal groups; those in which the filling up of these states is actually in progress are called elements of the intermediate groups. These groups of elements are conveniently considered separately." (p. 254)

"We see that the occupation of different states occurs very regularly in the series of elements of the principal groups: first the s states and then the p states are occupied for each principal quantum number n. The electron configurations of the ions of these elements are also regular (until electrons from the d and f shells are removed in the ionisation): each ion has the configuration corresponding to the preceding atom. Thus, the Mg+ ion has the configuration of the sodium atom, and the Mg++ ion that of neon." (p. 255)

"Let us now turn to the elements of the intermediate groups. The filling up of the 3d, 4d, and 5d shells takes place in groups of elements called respectively the iron group, the palladium group and the platinum group. Table 4 gives those electron configurations and terms of the atoms in these groups that are known from experimental spectroscopic data. As is seen from this table, the d shells are filled up with considerably less regularity than the s and p shells in the atoms of elements of the principal groups. Here a characteristic feature is the 'competition' between the s and d states."

"This lack of regularity is observed in the terms of ions also: the electron configurations of the ions do not usually agree with those of the preceding atoms. For instance, the V+ ion has the configuration 3d4 (and not 3d24s2 like titanium) ; the Fe+ ion has 3d64s1 (instead of 3d54s2 as in manganese)."

"A similar situation occurs in the filling up of the 4f shell; this takes place in the series of elements known as the rare earths. † The filling up of the 4f shell also occurs in a slightly irregular manner characterised by the 'competition' between 4f, 5d and 6s states."

"† In books on chemistry, lutetium is also usually placed with the rare-earth elements. This, however, is incorrect, since the 4f shell is complete in lutetium; it must therefore be placed in the platinum group."

"The last group of intermediate elements begins with actinium. In this group the 6d and 5f shells are filled, similarly to what happens in the group of rare-earth elements." (p. 256–257)

The authors exclude lanthanum from the rare earths since the 4f shell has not started filling. Yet actinium and thorium are included by them with what we now call the actinoids even though these two metals have no f electrons. No explanation is provided for this puzzling lack of consistency with their categories.





René Vernon writes: I have joined up their one note and three tables. (Curium was the last known element at their time of writing; transcurium elements are shown in parentheses.):

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Year:  1958 PT id = 1263, Type = formulation

Weaver & Foster's Laminar Chart of the Elements

Weaver EC & Foster LS 1960, Chemistry For Our Times. 3rd ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, p. 382

René Vernon writes:

An earlier version of this table appeared in JChemEd in 1949. The authors then wrote:

"It is apparently difficult to give a proper idea of electronic configuration in two dimensions without spreading out vertically or horizontally, and thereby sacrificing the order of atomic number, or compactness, or both. In three dimensions it is entirely feasible, but the first reaction is to discard three dimensions as too awkward. The laminar chart here proposed seems to the authors to possess the advantages of both the two dimensional and three dimensional charts and to have none of their disadvantages.

"A minor feature of the table, introduced for reasons of expediency, is the artificial break between the first and the second main shell. Use is made of this space to print the traditional group headings, I A, III A, IVB, etc., which are firmly entrenched in the literature, and still find active use as classifying labels. Other objects in making the artificial break were to minimize the resemblance between hydrogen and the alkali metals and to emphasize helium's character as an inert gas (completed 1s subshell), rather than, as might otherwise be supposed, a member of the alkaline earth family.

"CONTOUR LAMINAR TABLE

"By another modification, constructing the Periodic Chart in the form of contour laminae, it is possible to represent actual energy levels without the necessity of referring to auxiliary tables. This is done by proportioning the rises between each subshell to correspond to the Pauling energy diagram. Thus, although the subshells having the same principal quantum number will be on the same contour lamina, they will not be on the same planar level. The recognition of these contour laminae is facilitated by the use of a different color for each one. A table of this type will then be more physically correct than the previous laminar models, and it is a question as to which form has the most practical utility.

"We believe that the laminar periodic tables, in either the original or a modified form, will greatly facilitate systematic teaching of the properties of the chemical elements. Students indoctrinated with the new system cannot fail to obtain a clearer and more lasting conception of the fundamental principles of inorganic chemistry."

Note the 4f and 5f series have been split into dyads of seven apiece. This is consistent with Shchukarev (1974, p. 118) who wrote that the filling sequence among the 4f metals is periodic, with two periods. Thus, after the occurrence of a half-full 4f subshell at europium and gadolinium, the filling sequence repeats with the occurrence of a full subshell at ytterbium and lutetium (Rokhlin 2003, pp. 4–5). A similar, but weaker, periodicity (Wiberg 2001, pp. 1643–1645) is seen in the actinoids, with a half-full 5f subshell at americium and curium, and a full subshell at nobelium and lawrencium.

Note that Zn, Cd, Lu and Hg have no electron numbers above them since the underlying shells were filled at Cu, Cd, Yb, and Au respectively.

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What is the Periodic Table Showing? Periodicity

© Mark R. Leach Ph.D. 1999 –


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