The Story of Dmitri Mendeleev
Written by Luca Baker
Who was Dmitri Mendeleev? He is the one who invented, or organized, the most consequential item in scientific history: the periodic table.
Mendeleev was a Russian chemist, born in Siberia in 1834. He was the youngest of twelve children in a very unfortunate family. A year after Mendeleev’s birth, his father went blind and was unable to work as a teacher; subsequently, his mother began working in a glass factory to provide for the family. When Mendeleev was a teenager, not only did his father die of tuberculosis, but his mother’s glass factory burnt down. The family went through great poverty.
Mendeleev’s mother saw greatness in him and was determined to get him an education. On horseback, she and Dmitri rode almost 4,000 kilometers over mountains to a school in Moscow in hopes of getting him an education. Unfortunately, the school rejected him. She still wanted him to go to school, so she made them ride another 700 kilometers to St. Petersburg, where he was accepted into the school. Because she was so worn out from the trip and also suffering from tuberculosis, she died ten days after Dmitri was enrolled.
After all the sacrifices that were made to grant Dmitri Mendeleev an education, he felt the need to fulfill his purpose and do something extraordinary. He took an interest in chemistry and later became a professor of the subject. He began to study elements and was greatly invested in them. He would perfect his understanding and get into debates with other chemists, all to make sure he understood them the best. Mendeleev took it upon himself to explain and organize the elements. That led to what many believe is his greatest achievement - the periodic table. Mendeleev was known for carrying cards wherever he went, and one night he dreamt of the periodic table he would eventually organize - the table was inspired by both the card game, solitaire, and the dream he had. He began to organize them by increasing atomic mass; this was what he saw in his dream. His table was similar to solitaire because both the horizontal and vertical columns held significance to understanding the table’s function. While his periodic table may not be what we currently use, it was revolutionary and paved the way for the most important organizational tool ever to exist.
Mendeleev’s First Periodic Table, Lemoyne.
Luca Baker is a teen writer from Chicago who currently lives in Florida. He has been advanced in English for the entirety of his academic career, and writing is one of his passions. He loves writing essays, analyzing literature, and even crafting screenplays. Science is another one of his interests, especially chemistry.
Sources Used:
KuzmBryson, Bill. A Short History of Nearly Everything. New York: Delacorte Press. 2008.
“Dmitri Mendeleev (Article).” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/big-history-project/stars-and-elements/knowing-stars-elements/a/dmitri-mendeleev#:~:text=It%20was%20later%20identified%20as,basic%20characteristics%20Mendeleev%20had%20recorded.
Elements and Atoms: Chapter 12 Mendeleev's First Periodic Table. Mendeleev's first periodic table. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2022, from web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/ea/mendeleevann.html.