The periodic table: A written documentary

1800s:

"What the hell does an atoms structure look like? Let's just put them in order of relative atomic mass!" 

And then...

"Wait a second lads! Some of these elements have the same properties! We need someone to sort them..."

Who's the man for the job? Mendeleev. Chemistry LAD.

Creepy Russians...

1869 Mendeleev:

 "Put the ones that are similar together in groups. But there seems to be some gaps..."

So, what would any distinguished scientist do?

"Let's take a stab at predicting them! What can go wrong?"

Surprisingly... Not much. Mendeleev was correct in his prediction of many of the elements that were missing. The periodic table you see today is not the same as it once was but it has simply been refined.