When born, element count = 63
Dimitri was born into a big Russian family in 1834. He studied science for a while, then became a chemistry professor at St. Petersburg University in 1867. One night, he had a dream of all of the elements’ names on cards, which floated onto a table in a certain order. When he woke up, he tried to recreate what he saw in his dream, but he just couldn’t. Then he had an idea, “What if there are more than 63 elements?” So he put in blank spots where other elements would go. He even was able to predict the traits of the blank spots based on surrounding elements that were known! When you look at Mendeleev’s predictions of a blank spot he named Eka-Silicon, and the element eventually found and named Germainium, his accuracy is staggering!
| Eka-Silicon Atomic mass: 72 Density: 5.5 g/cm3 Color: gray Specific heat: 0.31 J/g °C | Germainium Atomic mass: 72.59 Density: 5.47 g/cm3 Color: gray Specific heat: 0.32 J/g °C |
With his early periodic table and passion for science, Mendeleev inspired an era of element hunting and led us to finding 55 new elements.