People have known about elements like Carbon and Gold since ancient times. In the late 1860’s, Dmitri Mendeleev began working on his great achievement- the Periodic Table of the elements. By arranging all of the 63 elements, then known by their atomic weights, he managed to organize them into groups possessing similar properties. First, he put elements into their correct places in the table. The greatness of Mendeleev was that not only did he leave spaces for elements that were not yet discovered, but he predicted properties of the elements and compounds!

Interesting Dmitrti Mendeleev Facts:

He was born near Tobolsk in Siberia
He was thought to have been the youngest child of a large family
His father was a teacher of fine arts but lost his job when he became blind
in 1849 his mother took him to St Petersburg to his father’s alma mater to continue his education
He became a professor at the St Petersburg Technological Institute in 1864
He received his Doctor of Science for his dissertation ” on the Combinations of Water with Alcohol” in 1865
He studied the composition of petroleum and help found the first oil refinery in Russia.